Social Justice Ireland (SJI) has condemned what it describes as, a
“preposterous proposal” from the OECD that it says would further
impoverish Ireland’s poor people.
Social Justice Ireland has decried the proposal from the OECD that
unemployment payments should be reduced over time to encourage
unemployed people to take up employment.
“The vast majority of unemployed people would take up any job that
was available” according to Fr Seán Healy, S.M.A., Director of Social
Justice Ireland.
“Just a few years ago the long-term unemployment rate
in Ireland was one of the lowest in the world at 1.3%. Many people
became unemployed because of the collapse in the economy.”
“The greatest devastation of this recession is being borne by those
who have lost their jobs. There is no evidence to suggest these people
would not take up a job if it were available. Blaming unemployed people
for the failures in the economy and the inability to produce jobs is
perverse in the extreme.”
Social Justice Ireland went on to point out that:
- Two thirds of a million people in Ireland are at risk of poverty.
- At least 90,000 of those employed in Ireland are at risk of poverty. These are the ‘working poor’.
- Social welfare payments for unemployed people are €34 a week below the poverty line for a single person and €56 a week for a couple over 25 years of age.
- Social welfare payments for unemployed people below 25 years of age are up to €122 a week for a single person and €168 a week for a couple below the poverty line.
According to SJI, the proposal by the OECD that unemployment payments
should be reduced further, “shows the OECD is totally out of touch with
the reality of the lives of people who are unemployed and are ignoring
the fact that they are unemployed because a sufficient number of jobs
don’t exist in the economy.”
“The claim that everybody should make a contribution to the
adjustment required in Ireland at present has been repeated like a
mantra in policy discussion and public commentary. Yet it is only
half-true.”
Social Justice Ireland agrees that everyone should make a
contribution insofar as they can. But they tate that they do we do not
accept that some people should be driven into poverty because of the
contribution that is demanded of them.
In their views, to do this is to
try to solve one problem by creating a deeper and more long-lasting
one.
“We reject any attempt to solve Ireland’s problems by increasing
inequality or by forcing the most vulnerable members of the population
into a situation where they do not have the resources to live life with
dignity” according to Fr Healy.
“Hits on poor people and the low-paid
have far bigger negative impact than larger hits on the better off who
have resources to absorb the hits. It is profoundly wrong for example
that poor people carry a major burden while senior bondholders, who
carry a large part of the responsibility for Ireland’s implosion, make
no contribution to sharing the burden.”