Govt 'failed to capitalise on boom': CORI

The Government has failed to really improve people’s well-being despite the economic boom, Catholic think-tank CORI will argue today.

The Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) said major improvements should have been made in the health service, education and social welfare with the unprecedented prosperity.

But despite a decade and a half of massive wealth creation, almost a fifth of Irish people still live in poverty because of fundamentally flawed government policies, it claims.

Fr Sean Healy, CORI’s justice director, will call for a new State approach to improving people’s well-being at the organisation’s social policy conference at University College Dublin today.

“Despite a decade and a half of prosperity Ireland finds itself with serious deficits in infrastructure and in social services which could and should have been addressed effectively by now,” he said.

“However, the development model followed by policy-makers was fundamentally flawed. It needs to be adjusted if Irish people are to achieve a real improvement in their wellbeing in the years immediately ahead.”

Fr Healy said 17% of the population live in poverty – with single people living on less than 11,400 euro a year and a household of four surviving on under €26,400 a year – despite a dramatic surge in the country’s overall income.

The social justice campaigner also insisted crucial non-paid work, such as caring for children, older and disabled people, was being devalued as the number of paid jobs almost doubled and unemployment plummeted.

“A new approach is needed,” he said. “A development model that focuses almost exclusively on economic growth as the key to increasing people’s wellbeing is doomed to failure.

“Economic development and social development are complementary and should be given equal priority.

“If this had been done during the Celtic Tiger years we would now have the infrastructure and social services required to ensure every person in Ireland could live life with dignity.”

The conference, called Making Choices, Choosing Futures: Ireland at a Crossroads, is the 20th in a series of annual public policy conferences organised by CORI since 1988.

More than 150 people from across the policy-making spectrum in Ireland and from more than a dozen other countries are expected to attend, according to the organisers.