After seven bruising years Ireland has emerged from the recession and we are now the fastest growing economy in Europe. We are in a so-called ‘recovery’
But there are some really important questions we need to think about if we are to avoid the mistakes of the past. We need to decide what type of country do we want to aim for? We need to ask how we are doing as a people –as a society- not just the economy. What is happening to our most vulnerable and what impact did austerity have? Are we a more equal or less equal country? Does this matter?
The uncomfortable truth is that despite the recovery in economic growth there are deep social and economic problems in Ireland. These result from the years of harsh austerity and the focus of governments (before and after the crash) on making Ireland the ‘best small country in the world in which to do business’. Insufficient attention has been given to ordinary people’s basic human rights, feelings, needs, ideas and wishes.
Firstly, take a minute or two to think about your family and your neighbours. How did the crash, austerity, and now the recovery affect them? Now take a little time to think about a group of people for whom the recovery has made things worse. These are the tens of thousands in the private rented sector who can’t afford their rents and face eviction.
You have probably heard of the hundreds of families -the mothers, fathers and their children – who are sleeping on our streets, in cars and parks because they can’t afford the rent and have been evicted. The numbers affected by the housing crisis are shocking and really unacceptable. Almost 5,000 people were homeless in July 2015, including 1,495 children. The housing crisis is also affecting thousands of people across the country in mortgage arrears and facing eviction, unaffordable rents and the lack of security of tenancy in the private rented sector, the 90,000 households on social housing waiting lists and the thousands unable to buy a home.
There are solutions but they require making housing a human right and moving away from housing as profit-making speculative asset. They require the government playing a much bigger role in providing social and affordable house building and low cost-rental housing.
Indeed the problems in the housing system are a significant contributor to the issue of growing inequality in Ireland. It’s not hard to see why. People who are not in good quality, secure, housing face much greater challenges in finding employment, in completing education and maintaining good health. Just think how much greater the challenges are to achieving a good education faced by the 1,500 children growing up in emergency accommodation in hostels and hotels compared to children in stable housing situations? Or the children in substandard social housing and private rented accommodation who are sick from mould and damp. Or the children who are going to school hungry. Or the children whose families are torn apart from the stress of rent or mortgage arrears, job loss or low wages. How fair is it for the 138,000 children (one out of every eight children) who experience consistent poverty on a daily basis?
Ireland has become a deeply unequal society and it is getting worse. You can see it visibly in the stark differences in housing, community facilities, and play grounds between disadvantaged and wealthier areas. In terms of hard facts the income gap between the top and bottom grew during the Celtic Tiger. The top 20% had 51% of the income in 1997 while the bottom 20% had just 2.6% of income before tax! By 2007 the top 20% had grown to get 53.2% of the income while the bottom 20% had the same 2.6%. It is even worse in terms of wealth inequality as the top 20% of households have 70% of net assets!
Health is another area of inequality. Health and life expectancy improve significantly the higher your social class, education and income levels. Research by the Equality Think Tank TASC, found that men living in the poorest areas lived four and a half years less than men who lived in the most affluent areas. Women in poor areas lived almost three years less. Many factors contribute to this but the lack of universal public health care is a major one. Those on higher incomes can pay for private health treatment and avoid the waiting lists in the public system. This is a big injustice with many negative consequences for society.
The problem with growing inequality is that the less equal a country is the greater the social problems are in terms of health (particularly mental health, anxiety, depression), crime, education drop out, low self-esteem and low social cohesion. This makes the quality of life worse for everyone. The most equal countries – such as Finland, Sweden, Japan and Norway have a much better quality of life than more unequal countries like the UK, the US and Ireland.
Next year will be the centenary of the 1916 rising and the Proclamation which outlined a vision for an Irish Republic that would guarantee;
“equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally…”
Importantly, next year a general election also takes place.
This is a real time to think about how we could achieve a Republic of Equality. To do this we need to develop together a new vision for Ireland that goes beyond profit, growth and corporations. We should aim to make Ireland the best small country in the world in which to grow up in, the country with the best outcomes in terms of mental health and the first country to end child poverty.
Are these not much better aspirations than being the country that achieves its economic growth through various forms of corporate tax avoidance that effectively steals the wealth from other countries? We need a more ethical vision for economic growth – based on cooperation, through investing in socially and environmentally necessary technologies and enterprise, through investment in caring – in building social housing, providing high quality and affordable childcare, youth spaces, elderly care, disability, traveller, and refugee support.
It does not have to be like this. We do not have to allow our lives to be dominated by the values and principles of an economic system that promotes exploitation, greed, selfishness, competition and profit-seeking individualism. In fact, the evidence suggests humans are more successful in more cooperative societies. We decline emotionally and physically in more individualised and alienated situations as we can see all around us today.
But a more caring Ireland is emerging from ordinary people. From the brave actions of the survivors of sex abuse and magdalene laundries, the demands for inclusion by those with a disability, to the massive community water protest movement and the marriage equality referendum. We are in a process of real change in Ireland that ordinary people are leading as they are no longer prepared to accept old oppressions, dogmas and silence. A Lust for Life and other mental health campaigners are also part of this change towards a more caring Ireland.
But we need to go further and deeper. We need a society-wide movement that encourages people to talk to each other openly and honestly about the type of country they want, what type of Republic, what type of society Ireland should be.
This could be called a movement for an Ireland and a Republic of Inclusion, Equality and Social Justice. It could bring together all those (who are the majority I believe) to campaign and bring about an Ireland that prioritises caring, solidarity and cooperation. But this will not happen without you.
Together can change Ireland if we stand up. Nothing is hopeless or inevitable. We are the makers of our world – dream big and together let’s do it.
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