Fergus Finlay: We need to put party politics aside to battle the cost-of-living crisis

The very existence of child poverty can only mean we’ve got our priorities all wrong

'Poverty, and especially child poverty, is deeply rooted in Ireland — shamefully so, given that we are one of the richest first-world countries on the planet.'

There are big things to be done, and little things. Things that will make an immediate difference that won’t last long, and things that might take a bit longer to have an impact but the impact will last for ever. Funny enough, some of the things that are “littler” might last much longer than some of the big expensive stuff. And it might be possible to build real political consensus around some of the more important stuff.

That’s what I learned during the week from chairing a panel on Zoom about child poverty — and, inevitably, about the cost-of-living battle that we’re all engaged in right now. The panel was organised by the brilliant Children’s Rights Alliance, an organisation that has made a huge difference in its relatively short life.

It has to be one of the few organisations that can gather a panel representative of every political party in the state to address a subject that’s often highly contentious. There was no point-scoring on this panel — just serious people putting forward serious ideas.

Of course, the panel took place against the backdrop of a cost of living spiral that is much worse than most people below a certain age can remember. The hardship it is generating, for families and for children, is at the heart of all political discourse right now and is exerting immense pressure on a government that has to come up with solutions.

They’re trying to do that in the certain knowledge that this is not a problem they can fix, and certainly not on their own. All they can do is try to find a combination of measures that can help a bit. And hope that people will accept they’ve done enough.

But we’re not just in a “here today, gone tomorrow” situation. 

Poverty, and especially child poverty, is deeply rooted in Ireland — shamefully so, given that we are one of the richest first-world countries on the planet

The very existence of child poverty — reflected at its most extreme end by the fact that thousands of our children have nowhere to call home — can only mean we’ve got our priorities all wrong.

At its outset, the panel was addressed by Hugh Fraser, who has been for as long as I can remember the most authoritative voice in Ireland about the subject of poverty and how it should be addressed. He reminded us of something I should have known but didn’t. Ireland has signed up to a European Child Guarantee aimed particularly at children at risk of poverty or social exclusion. It commits us to ensure some fundamental things —access to free and decent childcare and education; access for every child to housing and healthcare; a healthy meal every school day and access to nutrition all year round.

We’ve (sort of) started work on implementing the changes necessary to fulfill this guarantee. In the best of all possible worlds, it will involve huge political commitment, a massive reordering of resources, and immense structural change.

 But we’re not in the best of all possible worlds — we’re flying by the seat of our pants in the face of several immediate and deep crises

So what can be done by our political system in a way that is sustainable and will make a decent and lasting difference? That was basically the question I put to the panel — “in three minutes or less, just tell me one thing you’d do right now”, I said to them, and I have to tell you their answers surprised me.

Kathleen Funchion of Sinn Féin immediately suggested that if we’re serious, we have to begin at birth — better maternity services and restoration of the role of community nursing in ensuring that every newborn child had a significant number of home visits in his or her first couple of years of life. 

Neasa Hourigan of the Green Party talked passionately about the challenges facing children, especially in urban areas, of finding safe places to play and grow, despite its importance to their social and emotional development. Paul Murphy advocated a range of price controls, particularly in relation to energy and home heating, and pointed to the enormous profits that go hand in hand with increased energy costs. He also proposed making public transport entirely free for as long as the crisis lasts.

Fiona O’Loughlin from Fianna Fáil called for all school books to be free, and for an increase in school capitation grants to enable the voluntary contributions demanded from parents to be done away with. 

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin of Labour echoed some of that and outlined the “from the ground up” reform that would make the early years the central political priority it has never been. Mary Seery Kearney from Fine Gael described housing as her priority, and argued that unless supply was effectively addressed we’d never end homelessness.

Peadar Tóibín of Aontú talked about an establishment's willingness to see all these things in terms of “tolerable levels of crisis” and proposed a much stronger carrot and stick approach to vacant home levies. Finally, Jennifer Whitmore from the Social Democrats called for the school meals programme to be extended, to community settings if necessary during school holidays, so that no child would be deprived of decent nutrition.

I hope that in briefly summarising the contributions from the various panelists I’ve done justice to their honesty and passion (you can watch the full discussion on the Children’s Rights Alliance facebook page). A couple of things struck me with considerable force.

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First, there was no rush to easy or gimmicky approaches in what was proposed. I see all sorts of coverage now suggesting that we’re all going to get another 200 quid off our energy bills. And no doubt we’ll all be grateful for a minute and a half. But it’s not going to fix anything. Some of the universal payments being proposed owe more to the fear of unpopularity than they do to any meaningful approach to the inflation battle.

Second, nobody was proposing anything likely to break the bank. Free school books won’t, neither will the guarantee of decent nutrition, nor free public transport. There is no country in the world that has been bankrupted by accessible and high-quality early education — in fact, the countries where it operates regard it as one of their economic strengths.

Finally, these were not politicians fighting with one another. They were focused on solutions in a situation where people are hurting. For sure, we’re going to see a situation soon where the Government will announce a set of proposals and the opposition will dismiss them as inadequate and meaningless.

What a waste of time and effort. Surely there’s an overwhelming case between now and the budget for the Government to at least try for an all-party approach? Surely it’s not too late to gather anyone who is willing to come around a table, and thrash out all the ideas? Surely leadership involves bringing people together in a time of crisis. Isn’t this crisis deep enough to try to put party politics to one side for a couple of weeks, and work out some real and lasting solutions? Don’t we all deserve that?