Government 'has broken promises to poor'
The Government was accused today of breaking promises to the most vulnerable people in society over the last eight years.
Fine Gael’s social and family affairs spokesman David Stanton said the Fianna Fáil-led coalition had reneged on commitments to the elderly, children, lone parents, people with disabilities and the homeless.
Mr Stanton was responding to today’s report by Government think tank ESRI, which found that vulnerable groups had been left behind by the Celtic Tiger economic boom.
The Trends in Welfare for Vulnerable Groups 1994-2001 study claimed quality of life had improved for everyone in Ireland since 1994 but added that a new “vulnerable class” had emerged which had a heightened risk to poverty and deprivation.
“After eight years in power, Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats have broken a number of commitments in relation to vulnerable groups,” Mr Stanton said today.
“We have seen eight years of broken commitments to vulnerable groups and it truly makes depressing reading.”
The Cork TD highlighted five areas where promises were broken:
:: A 2001 Budget pledge to spend €1.27bn on child benefits over three years;
:: Government reviews had failed to address that 42% of adults and children living in households headed by a lone parent are at risk of poverty in comparison with 23% of the overall population;
:: The Agreed Programme for Government in 2002 promised that people with disabilities would be allowed to play their part in an inclusive society, but poverty and disability remain inextricably linked with an estimated 70% of people with disabilities, Mr Stanton claimed;
:: The Government had promised to roll out medical cards to 200,000 families on low incomes with children but actually cut them by over 100,000. The doctor-only medical cards have still not appeared, despite being promised more than 10 months ago;
:: The Government’s National Development Plan 2000/06 promised an additional 35,500 local authority housing units and an increase in the output of the voluntary housing sector to 4,000 units per year.
Between 2000 and 2004, total local authority housing output was 18,284. At that rate, only 25,500 units – 10,000 fewer than projected – will be built, Mr Stanton said.
Christopher Whelan, senior ESRI researcher, insisted in today’s report that significant improvements had been seen in Irish society since the boom 1990s.
He expressed concerns that a vulnerable class was lagging behind the rest of society.
“Households with children, the elderly, disabled – most of these groups were significantly better off at the end of the period than before it. The number with no jobs fell dramatically, women in the labour force went up hugely,” he said.
“It is the ill and the disabled which fared poorly, relatively speaking. A rising tide will raise all boats but not all boats were rising at the same speed.”
Mr Whelan said the Celtic Tiger differed greatly from the Thatcher boom years which saw a massive influx of wealth in the United Kingdom in the 1980s.
“It did provide better support. It made sure welfare provision moved in line with increasing wages, it tracked these changes fairly well. Work increased wages, but a substantial reduction in tax allowed for more disposable income,” he said.
The ESRI study showed the size of the vulnerable class fell sharply over the period, from just over three out of 10 in 1994 to one in nine in 2001.
