Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Election represents critically important moment in our national life – JCFJ

The general election marks a critically important moment in the national life of the country and an important opportunity for both politicians and people to determine how the problems facing Ireland should be dealt with, according to the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice.

In a statement discussing the context of the February 25 election, the Jesuit Centre says it is taking place amidst great anger at what has happened, and acute anxiety about the future.

“It takes place against a background of a deep economic crisis, which encompasses a banking crisis, unprecedented levels of national and personal debt, and the closure or downsizing of many businesses with consequent huge losses of employment”, the JCFJ statement says.  

Highlighting that there are now 200,000 more people unemployed than there were in late 2007, the JCFJ notes that at 13.6 per cent, Ireland’s unemployment rate is three times greater than it was before the recession and is the third highest in the EU.

“Of particular concern is the increase in long-term unemployment and the high number of young people who are out of work.  In the case of great numbers of those unemployed, the effects of joblessness – in terms of reduced income and impact on general well-being – are experienced not just by the unemployed person themselves but by their partners and children."

The Jesuit Centre highlights how enforced emigration has once more become “an unwelcome feature of Irish life, affecting not only those who have to leave the country, but their immediate and wider families and local communities.”

Quoting from ESRI data, it says that in the year up to April 2010, net emigration exceeded 65,000 and is predicted to top 100,000 over the two-year period from April 2010 to April 2012.

Assessing recent history, the JCFJ claims that, “Underlying the boom that led to the current economic crisis was a prioritising of values such as individualism, self-interest, acquisitiveness, and consumerism, over values reflecting social concern and social responsibility.  A culture of greed took hold in many parts of Irish society.”

However, the JCFJ acknowledges that one of the positive aspects of the economic downturn is the more frequent reference now in public discussion to values such as ‘the common good’, ‘social solidarity’ and ‘sustainability’.

But the JCFJ warns that the mere articulation of such values is in itself of little consequence, unless there is a corresponding determination to take the decisions and measures necessary to give effect to them.  It shouldn’t generate a “feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people,” the JCFJ says.  

Rather, it should result in “a firm and preserving determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all.”

The Centre states that it is unacceptable that people who are on the lowest incomes, those who are unemployed, and those depending on the public health and care services be asked to bear the major share of the burden of rectifying the economic problems facing the country.

Responding to the call from the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice for the needs of those who are suffering most in the recession to take priority over the demands of the more powerful, Jesuit campaigner on homelessness, Fr Peter McVerry, has said that allowing those worst affected by Ireland’s economic crisis to bear the burden of the country’s proposed financial adjustments would be “wholly wrong and a terrible reflection on Irish society.”

“Many people are now enduring the cumulative effects of reductions in what were already low wages or social welfare payments, alongside the imposition of additional charges, cutbacks in services and longer waiting lists,” Fr McVerry warned. 

“We need to believe that the current crisis can also be a time when both people and politicians are prepared to think and act more radically,” he said.

Fr McVerry said it would be wrong therefore to allow a situation where the people who must survive on the lowest incomes and who depend on public health and care services to bear the major part of the burden of rectifying the problems in the country’s public finances.

The Jesuit underlined that with good leadership and effective and fair responses to the crisis, “hope can be restored and we can seek to build a better society, one where the promotion of the common good really does become the guiding principle for economic and social policies and for the conduct of political life.”