Inequality means we can’t be smug

DESPITE making significant strides in the league of wealthy nations, Ireland still has one of the highest levels of inequality among western countries outside the US.

This damning observation in the latest UN report on global poverty is an apt summation of Irish society where the gap between rich and poor is growing wider by the day.

According to the UN’s poverty index Ireland still has a long way to go in terms of tackling such factors as