Social Justice, Poverty and Ireland

Dr. Conor McCabeUCD School of Social Justice

31 July 2014

1.Poverty

2.Economic Class Relations

3.Bank Crash

4.Irish Society

5.Gender and Austerity

“People are living in poverty if their income and resources (material, cultural and social)are so inadequate as to preclude them from having a standard of living that is regardedas acceptable by Irish society generally.

As a result of inadequate income and resources people may be excluded and marginalised from participating in activities that are considered the norm for other people in society.”

(2007) National Action Plan for Social Inclusion2007-2016

POVERTY LINE – 60% of median disposable income

2011 – median disposable income : €348.05 per week ($466 per week)

60% - €208.80 per week ($278 per week)

Food poverty is defined as suffering from one of the following deprivation experiences:

• Missed a meal in the last two weeks due to a lack of money

• Cannot afford a meal with meat or vegetarian equivalent every second day

• Cannot afford a roast or vegetarian equivalent once a week

Over the last quarter of a century something fundamental seems to have changed in the way in which capitalism works.

The tendency since 1970 has been towards greater geographical mobility of capital.

Rather than being a modest helper to the capital accumulation process, [finance] gradually turned into a driving force.

Speculative finance became a kind of secondary engine for growth given the weakness in the primary engine, productive investment.

“Eurostat, the EU Commission’s data agency has calculated the cost of the banking crisis in each EU country. The following focuses on the cost to general government budgets. Ireland has really taken one for Team EU.”

A Really Really Special Case Requires a Really Really Special Solution

Michael Taft, 15 Jan 2013

“As understood by the Financial Regulator, ‘principles-based’ regulation relied very heavily on making sure that appropriate governance structures and systems were in place in banks and building societies.

Honohan Report on the Irish banking crisis, May 2010, p.44.

“As understood by the Financial Regulator, ‘principles-based’ regulation relied very heavily on making sure that appropriate governance structures and systems were in place in banks and building societies.

To this extent, the underlying philosophy was oriented towards trusting a properly governed firm; it was potentially only a short step from that trust to the emergence of a somewhat diffident attitude on the part of the regulators so far as challenging the decisions of firms was concerned.

Honohan Report on the Irish banking crisis, May 2010, p.44.

“As understood by the Financial Regulator, ‘principles-based’ regulation relied very heavily on making sure that appropriate governance structures and systems were in place in banks and building societies.

To this extent, the underlying philosophy was oriented towards trusting a properly governed firm; it was potentially only a short step from that trust to the emergence of a somewhat diffident attitude on the part of the regulators so far as challenging the decisions of firms was concerned.

[Also], legislation set as a statutory objective of the [central bank and financial regulator] the promotion of the financial services industry in Ireland, the situation was ripe for the emergence of a rather accommodating stance vis-à-vis credit institutions.”

Honohan Report on the Irish banking crisis, May 2010, p.44.

Closing down of Dissent - Attacks on Equality in IrelandEquality Bodies – closed down or with reduced Budgets

Combat Poverty Agency –closed 2008 incorporated into the Department of Social Protection Equality Authority – 2009 43% cut and now being merged with the Human Rights Commission Women’s Health Council – closed 2009  Crisis Pregnancy Agency – closed and merged with the Health Service Executive  Irish Human Rights Commission -Budget cuts since 2009 and merged with Equality Authority Equality for Women Measure - co-funded by EU Operational Programme ---budget partly transferred out of

this area and now under Dept. For Enterprise, Trade and Employment  National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) _Closed 2009  Gender Equality desk at the Department (Ministry) of Justice, Equality and Law Reform – Desk Closed 2009 Gender Equality Unit – Department of Education – Closed early 2000s Higher Education Equality Unit – UCC -Closed and merged into Higher Education Authority (early 2000s) National Women’s Council of Ireland -158 member organisations- budget cuts of 15% in 2008-11 and 38% in

2012 Traveller Education cutbacks 2011 and 2012 – all 42 Visiting teaches for Travellers removed*  Rape Crisis Network Ireland – core Health Authority Funding removed 2011

SAFE Ireland network of Women’s’ Refuges - core Health Authority Funding removed 2011

People With Disabilities in Ireland's (PWDI) - funding removed 2012

National Carers’ Strategy – abandoned 2009

Kathleen Lynch, Equality Studies UCD School of Social Justice 46

Gender and CaringNotes on Lynch and Lyons, ‘The Gendered Order of Caring’ in Ursula Barry (ed) Where Are We

Now? New Feminist Perspectives on Women in Contemporary Ireland (Dublin: Tasc, 2008)

There are deep gender inequalities in the doing of care and love work that operate to the advantage of men.

It is women’s unwaged labour and related domestic labour that frees men up to exercise control in the public sphere of politics, the economy and culture.

… there is a moral imperative on women to do care work that does not apply equally to men ; a highly gendered moral code impels women to do the greater part of primary caring, with most believing they have no choice in the matter.

The Irish government collects data on unpaid caring within households in

1. the Census

2. the Quarterly Household Survey (QNHS).

Within the Census, care is defined as being given by ‘persons aged 15yrs and over who provide regular unpaid help for a friend or family member with a long-term illness, health problem or disability (including problems due to age). P.167-8

The way care is defined in the Census excludes what constitutes a major category of care work, that of the ordinary, everyday care of children (unless the child has a recognised disability). Data on the care of children is compiled in the QNHS, however, and is also available through the European Community Household Panel (ECPH) survey. The focus in all three is on the hours of work involved in caring so we do not know the nature and scope of the caring involved. P.168

According to the [2006] Census there are less than 150,000 people, 5 per cent of the adult population in unpaid care work (mostly with adults) of whom 61 per cent are women and 39 per cent are men.

However, when we measure all types of caring activity, as has been done in the European Community household Panel (ECPH) we see that there are 1 million people who do caring who are not named in the census.

Even though it is no doubt unintentional, the failure to collect data on hours spent on child care work in the Census, means that child care, which is the major form of care work in Irish society, is no counted in terms of work hours.

… women are almost five times as likely to work long care hours than is the case for men.

Women spend much more time at care work than men, even when they are employed.