Social Justice Ireland warns government to plan long and short term to resolve inequality

Social Justice Ireland has warned the Government that it needs to plan for both the short and the long term if it is to resolve some of the issues affecting the country’s most vulnerable people.

The think tank organisation publishes its National Social Monitor 2014 today and in it SJI urges more spending in the areas of healthcare, with a warning that projected population growth will mean that by 2025 the number of people living in Ireland aged over 85 years will have doubled.

The National Social Monitor also outlines how some positive signs of economic rejuvenation — such as falling unemployment figures and the exiting of the bailout — have been tempered by continuing inequality, child poverty, a shortage of social housing and a growing urban-rural divide.