Republican News · Thursday 25 July 2002

UN report a shocking indictment - Crowe

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Social and Community Affairs, Seán Crowe TD has described the Human Development report from the UN as a "shocking indictment of government policies".

Crowe was speaking after the publication of the Human Development Index (HDI) that found that although Ireland ranked fourth-richest, it had the highest level of poverty in the Western World outside the US.

Deputy Crowe said: "The Human Development report from the UN highlights in a very real way the inequalities that have and continue to exist in Irish society. That we can be ranked fourth-richest country in the world at the same time as having the highest level of poverty in the Western world outside of the US is a shocking indictment of successive government policies that have ensured that gap between rich and poor continues to expand at an alarming rate.

"Minister Kitt's assertion that the data is out of date and that significant progress has been made in tackling poverty flies in the face of reality. Homelessness is increasing, the housing crisis is out of control, drug addiction in disadvantaged areas is at an all-time high, hospital waiting lists are as high as ever with recent government cutbacks ensuring that they will grow and our education system is in permanent crisis.

"While Minister Kitt might be able to point to the fact that more people are at work he is ignoring the fact that many of these people are under more pressure and find it more difficult than ever to secure access to vital services because they can't afford to pay.

"The figures that this report was based on were taken at the very peak of Ireland's economic boom and show a very clear failure on behalf of government to share the wealth, that was created in large by the ordinary worker, equally. As we head into a period of economic uncertainty we are already seeing government departments making cutbacks that will affect the less well off in society first and hardest. It is time the government stopped pandering to the economists, bankers and industry moguls and started addressing the massive inequalities that exist in our society."

What the UN Human development report found

At the current level of effort, it will take 130 years to end world hunger

More than 30,000 children die daily from preventable diseases

113 million children are not receiving schooling

Globally there are 854 million illiterate adults

The richest 5% in the world have incomes 114 times greater than the poorest

23 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are poorer than they were in 1975

47% of the Sub-Saharan population is living on $1 a day, unchanged since 1990

Per capita income in Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS fell in the 1990s

If TB control does not improve 1 billion people will contract it by 2020 and 35 million will die

22 million people had died of AIDS by the end of 2000