Social reform - Our unfair society must be changed

We in Ireland are rarely found wanting in acknowledging those moments in history that have shaped our past. Only this week we have been commemorating the 98th anniversary of the Easter Rising and the 1,000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf.

But what about those things that never quite took hold but might have shaped our future for the better? Next year is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Planning For A Just Society, one of most profound social documents ever to emerge here. The document was not just signalling a break from the past, but was meant to be a blueprint for the future. It was also, of course, the manifesto of its author, Declan Costello, who was leader of a new generation of Fine Gael politicians in the 1960s that wanted to move the party to the left.

The central theme of Costello’s thesis was that social reform and social progress are not luxuries which must wait until economic development has reached a peak.

It might be no harm if the current crop of Fine Gael politicians were to revisit that document in the light of another one published today.

The latest study by Social Justice Ireland makes sober reading as it shows what a much unfairer society we have become since the recession. It also reminds us how the bank bailout allowed the single biggest transfer of resources from low- and middle-income people to the rich and powerful in Irish history.

The 320-page review, entitled, Steps Towards A Fairer Future, analyses the economic challenges facing the country and the impact of policies put in place by the Government. It sets out five key policy areas it says should be addressed if we are to build a fairer future or — as Costello might have put it — a just society.

The fact that it has come from an independent and non-political organisation should encourage all shades of political opinion to embrace it.

It is hard to argue with Fr Seán Healy, the director of Social Justice Ireland, who says that “all politicians need to recognise that a rising tide won’t lift all boats”, and that Ireland must avoid a repetition of the boom to bust sequences that have characterised economic cycles in the past. The review also points to the extraordinary reluctance by the Government to show any long-term vision of the kind of society to be built from the wreckage of recent years.

It is published at a time when many Irish and European policymakers are holding up Ireland as a success story, as the first country to emerge from the troika’s programme. Yet, that was done not just with huge social cost but undemocratically. In Ireland, decisions allocating vast resources to the financial sector were made by a few senior politicians and officials, often behind closed doors.

There was always a danger that the departure of the troika would tempt politicians — among others — to believe that our woes are behind us, but that would be to ignore the fact that the restoration of relative economic independence has come at huge social cost.

As the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show, there are more than 750,000 people living in poverty — with the gap between the poorest and richest increasing since the age of austerity. Is that a legacy the party of Declan Costello are now proud of?