Speaking after the publication of a report from the Think tank for Action on Social Change (TASC), Cherishing All Equally: Economic Inequality in Ireland, Dublin South West TD Seán Crowe described the current pay gap in Ireland as a significant element in the difference between the haves and the have not’s.
The TASC findings show that Ireland is now the most unequal country in the EU when it comes to how the economy distributes income, before taxes and social welfare payments are included. Crowe said that it should serve as another reminder that Government policies are responsible for the increased hardship heaped on Irish families.
Deputy Seán Crowe said
“This report confirms that Ireland is one of the most unequal countries in the European Union and it confirms what many frontline organisations have being consistently saying to Government.
“Unfortunately successive Irish Governments have chosen to increasingly protect the vested interests of financial elites over that of the ordinary Irish citizens.
“It is quite clear that from this, and other recent Reports, that the level of inequality in Ireland is growing.
“Sinn Fein’s analysis is that lower and middle income families have been carrying an unfair burden for the austerity agenda that has been relentlessly pursued by successive Irish Governments.
“The concentration of income in the hands of a few wealthy individuals gives them even more clout to lobby for tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the few.
“It is our belief that the economic deficit could have been reduced in a fairer and better way.
“Instead those on low to middle incomes and our public services were targeted, through a heartless austerity policy with hundreds of thousands of our best and brightest have being forced to emigrate.
“Inequality not only leads to poverty and social exclusion but also fuels and energizes the race to the bottom when it comes to wages
“What is needed is a fair and sustainable recovery, rather than an unequal and temporary illusion of recovery where inequalities are becoming even more entrenched between the haves and the have not’s.”
ENDS