Charities doing State’s work - Obligations on wrong agencies

DURING our financial collapse one of the stock-in-trade assertions was that, in our unequal relationship with too-big-to-fail banks, we socialised losses but privatised profits. The phrase captured the inequity and dysfunction of the crisis.

A pretty similar principle has been in play over recent days when the Irish Cancer Society, a charity with limited government support, was criticised for dropping supports to cancer victims. This led to an outcry that forced a U-turn, a partial one at least, and some supports have been restored.

In this instance our culture has socialised significant obligations — support for the sick — to charities and by so doing allowed the State to shirk entirely natural responsibilities.