More people caught in poverty trap

According to the latest survey from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), the number of people below the poverty line in this country continues to rise.

The report covers the seven-year period from 1994 to two years ago, one of the most economically prosperous periods Ireland has witnessed, when the Celtic tiger roamed the land.

In that comparatively short span of time, the gap between the haves and have nots widened from 6% to more than double that figure to 13% in 2001.

The gap opened up despite the fact there has been a fall in unemployment levels and a substantial growth in real incomes.

However, growths in income levels refer to those from employment, and cannot be compared in real terms to increases in social welfare benefits.

It must be said that the latter have risen in that period, but they are hardly index-linked, so those in the poverty trap interminably trail behind the cost of living in one of the two most expensive countries in Europe to live and to be poor.

Because of the fact that the direct cost of living here is inflated by indirect and stealth taxes, social benefits are eroded so that making ends meet is a constant struggle, if, indeed, they ever meet below the poverty line.

To put their plight in perspective, it is anticipated that this Christmas consumers will spend an incredible €10 billion, which will be slightly up on the amount spent last year.

Those persistently on the poverty line, or below it, will not be contributors to that economic splurge, but will have to depend on voluntary organisations such as the St Vincent de Paul Society, or the Simon Community, to exist over Christmas.

Both organisations launched their seasonal appeals this week, and without the generosity of the public neither they, nor the other selfless bodies, could relieve the misery which the less fortunate in society endure.

One of the recommendations contained in the ESRI report is that the monitoring of poverty up to the year 2007 should take a broader focus, with more attention paid to income levels than inflation.

The institute advocates a new system of measuring poverty, because the current indicators have been the gauge since 1987, and social conditions and expectations have changed considerable since then.

For instance, it would be ludicrous in this day and age to point to somebody with a colour television set and deny that they were on, or below, the poverty line.

Whereas our support system should not be such to discourage employment aspirations, neither should it infer a lack of dignity.