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A Fair Deal

Building a more Equal Ireland

The Challenge

Even after more than a decade of rapid growth, poverty is still a reality. Why is it that Ireland has one of the most unequal distributions of income in the industrialised world? Or that one in nine children live in poverty? Why are the poor still likely to be children of the poor, caught in the poverty trap set by poor education, low-skilled jobs and unemployment?

While poverty exists in every corner of Ireland, there are also particular areas where there are strong concentrations of poverty and disadvantage, leading to a particularly acute experience of poverty for the families and communities concerned.These are areas where significant pockets of chronic, persistent unemployment coexist with buoyant national labour markets. One in three children in some disadvantaged schools has severe literacy and numeracy difficulties - ten times the national average. School drop-out rates in some parts of the capital are as high as 60 per cent. Life expectancy in severely deprived communities is lower and the incidence of chronic ill health, including mental ill health, higher.

In these severely disadvantaged communities, families struggle with the combined burden of poverty, crime, low educational attainment, unemployment, drugs, over-stretched services, poor housing and health problems.

Despite progress in improving social welfare payment rates, absolute poverty is still a reality, with social welfare payments often falling short of what is needed to make ends meet, and relative poverty rates remain high by European standards.

Furthermore, Social Welfare rules include perverse disincentives to re-train, take up employment or even co-parent. The safety net of social welfare can become a trap from which it makes no financial sense to escape. Some groups in our society are particularly vulnerable, including one-parent families, the elderly, and those working on low incomes.

The concept of equality is built on the idea that everyone should be able to develop their potential to the full. Too often in our society, human potential is unnecessarily and arbitrarily held back through poverty and disadvantage. Equality is not achieved by a state that stands back, and allows each individual to find their own way, but through proactive policies designed to allow each individual to realise their full potential. As a society, we must ensure that, working together, we spread the opportunities of modern Ireland to all our people.

Ireland can do better

A fairer, more equal society is possible. We can hope for a better future for communities blighted by generations of neglect if we wage a war against economic poverty, poverty of skills and poverty of aspiration. We can reform the social welfare code, making it not just a safety net, but also a springboard of opportunity. We can assist those who can work to support themselves, and we can do more for those, including many elderly citizens, who face life on low incomes.

What Labour will do

Labour's approach to tackling inequality and poverty is based on a combination of four elements

Continuing to enhance the adequacy of social welfare payments
Reform of social welfare to remove poverty traps and to improve the position of some of those at highest risk of poverty
Our Fair Deal Commitment for areas of multiple disadvantage
Better services, especially in health and education, to improve quality of life, and to give people a springboard for a better future.

Social Welfare reform

Many of the meaningful changes in the Irish social welfare system have happened under Labour Party guidance and initiative. While recent budgets have seen significant improvements in social welfare payment rates, which Labour has welcomed, little has been done to modernise the social welfare system to recognise the changes in families, in the role of women, and the nature of work. Despite having the opportunity to do so, the present government has not been willing to engage in real social welfare reform to tackle the problem of poverty traps and persistent poverty and inequality. Our proposals for social welfare reform are set out using the life cycle approach adopted by the social partners.

Children

In the context of developing policy on support for families with children, including the early years subsidy, FIS and CDAs, we will examine reform options including a supplementary child benefit.
We will substantially improve rates of payment under the Back to School allowance scheme, introduct a once-off payment for children entering second level education and review the income limits.

Working age

This government says we have full employment and only 4.2 per cent unemployment but over half a million working aged people are trapped on social welfare unable to live life or contribute to their full potential. We will maximise their opportunity for employment while at the same time ensuring the social welfare system is an effective safety net for those who cannot work or cannot find work.

Social welfare payments are still not enough to lift people out of poverty. As resources allow we will make real increases in social welfare payments.
Over time, we will replace the Rent Allowance scheme with a new form of housing support for public and private rental accommodation, which also covers those working on low incomes. As a short-term measure we will increase the disregards and rent thresholds that apply in the existing scheme.
Improve the system of retention of secondary benefits for people who take up work.
We will restructure support for one-parent families, to enable those parenting alone meet their caring obligations, support themselves in work and, if they choose, form sustainable relationships.
Promote equality for women in the social welfare system by beginnng to phase out the limitation rule and the concept of qualified adult.
We will make the social welfare service more relevant to the needs of working mothers' employment patterns by reviewing the 'actively seeking work' guidelines to facilitate part-time working.
Consistent with our commitment to reform FÁS, we will also examine the Department of Social and Family Affairs to ensure it has the capacity to meet the demands of a modern society.
Ensure that work pays through examination of how social welfare income interacts with paid work. 80 The Fair Society - Labour Manifesto 2007
Ensure that the obligations of people of working age to seek work are met by the State with the appropriate levels of support.
We will review the supplementary welfare allowance urgent needs payments and develop a low cost credit scheme for those on social welfare or low incomes.

Pensions

While much is said about the contribution of older people to the foundations of our modern economy, less is done in real terms to value and reward that contribution.

We will raise the level of the State non-Contributory pension to €300 by 2012.
We will progressively increase contributory old age pension qualified adult payments towards the same level as the adult rate, and pay them directly to the qualified adult.
We will allow non-contributory pensioners to earn money from self-employment as well as employment without affecting their pension.
We will recognise the real contribution made by older women near or at pension age to both the Irish economy and society by progressively making home care credits retrospective to 1973.

Disability and care

Those who are depending on receiving care and those who provide that care are often the most vulnerable in our society. It is no surprise that many of this group are women.

We will introduce a cost of disability allowance.
Abolish the means test for carers.
Examine how to ensure that women who take time out to care for others do not suffer pension poverty in later years.

Long-Term Pensions Reform

Labour believes that the time has come to put in place a comprehensive pensions policy framework to ensure that all older people have an adequate retirement income, through a combination of social welfare and personal/occupational pensions. To achieve this goal we will adopt the following approach:

Request that the social partners, working through the National Economic and Social Council, prepare a blueprint document for a comprehensive settlement of the pensions issue. We will place that document before the next round of pay negotiations, and move rapidly to an implementation phase.
We believe this settlement should provide for automatic pensions deductions for all employees, with an opt-out option. Every employee will have a pension contribution made from their pay packet, but will have the option to sign a form saying that they do not wish to make that contribution. Where a person is not part of a company pension scheme, the automatic voluntary contribution would be paid into a personal defined-contribution pension product.
A major push to expand this kind of pensions coverage demands that the state ensures that people have reasonably priced pensions products available to them. The pensions industry in Ireland continues to be characterised by obscure charging regimes, and there are real difficulties for consumers in identifying who is charging what so that they can compare pensions products. We need further reform to address these issues.
In addition, the state acting though the NTMA, should provide access to a basic personal pension product or products. This should be structured among the lines of an SSIA, where contributions and state top-ups are clearly visible. This would be the default option for the automatic voluntary deduction. It would of course be open to people to pay their contributions to a private sector provider. The NTMA could charge a fair, modest and transparent fee for its services.
While this approach will improve the income of future pensioners, it will not address poverty among older people at present. We believe the solution is to introduce a minimum income guarantee for today's pensioners. This would provide a top-up pension payment to those whose income falls below a minimum level.
The state will be required to continue incentivisation of personal pensions provision in the future. There is a need, however, to impose more rigorous limits to prevent the use of pension schemes for wholesale tax avoidance.
There is a need to examine pensions legislation to ensure easy transferability of pensions between employers and between pension providers and allow for easy amalgamation of multiple pensions. It is also important to protect the pension rights of employees working in firms that are sold as going concerns. Defined benefit schemes, where they exist, should be sustained.
We will sympathetically examine the idea of a state annuity scheme.

As a society, we must ensure that, working together, we spread the opportunities of modern Ireland to all our people

A Fair Deal for Communities

Chronically deprived communities need a coordinated programme of investment in all aspects of life in these areas, including education, health, the built environment, policing and childcare. Coupled with social welfare reform, this amounts to a major, cross-departmental 'Marshall Plan' for what we call Fair Deal Communities.

This programme can be delivered through the National Development Plan by prioritising and ring-fencing investment in these areas in a determined, co-ordinated, whole-of-government approach.

Labour in government will:

Use existing structures to replace the RAPID programmes with a Fair Deal for Communities initiative.
Draw on small/local area census data to compile accurate deprivation indexes to help and delimit Fair Deal communities.
Secure a transparent, multi-annual funding formula for the Fair Deal initiatives.
Require all relevant government departments and agencies to clearly earmark and ring-fence not less than 5 per cent of NDP capital funds for Fair Deal communities.
Incorporate strong ex post evaluative and accountability rules within the framework of reformed public financial procedures.
Put renewed emphasis on strategic direction from the centre and locally based, targeted active labour market initiatives and local employment/placement services in Fair Deal communities and neighbourhoods.
Prioritise Fair Deal communities in the deployment of additional community Gardai and the development of local community policing structures.

Tackling Educational Disadvantage

Like poverty, educational disadvantage is to be found in every corner of Ireland, but is also concentrated in particular areas of cumulative disadvantage. We want to develop a system which allocates resources based on the cumulative 'weight' of disadvantage of the schools' pupils. Thus the most disadvantaged schools will still receive the most support, while schools with 'pockets' of disadvantage within their catchments will also receive necessary resources to address their needs. We also believe that school principals should have greater flexibility in applying resources to meet the needs of their particular school and area.

In addition, we will:

Adequately resource the National Educational Psychologist Service to ensure that children get assessed quickly, and thus have access to the learning support they need.
Provide well-equipped, family-friendly school libraries which could have the potential to offer community-based family literacy schemes.
Encourage local authorities to promote better literacy, through homework clubs, longer opening hours for libraries, and better design and standards in local authority housing - the ideas promoted by the Right to Read Campaign.
Enable pre-school centres and schools to adopt special teaching programmes such as High/Scope and the Incredible Years programme, aimed at educating parents in the skills of parenthood and targeting children with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulty (EBD) in school and at home.
Adequately resource the NEWB to allow it to fulfil its national mandate under the Education and Welfare Act 2000.
The Board will also be mandated to prioritise Fair Deal communities and neighbourhoods and to actively engage with other agencies such as FÁS and the HSE and community representatives in the area implementation planning structures.
In respect of primary education we will provide the most disadvantaged primary schools with a comprehensive package of supports.

Tackling the Skills Deficit

Low levels of education and skills are primary drivers of low incomes and inter-generational poverty. Labour is committed to reform of Ireland's skills and training structures, with the twin aims of enhancing productivity and promoting social solidarity. Central to this objective is that of reducing the numbers who leave school without Leaving Cert equivalent qualifications, and raising the educational attainment of those who have already left school with inadequate qualifications.

What Labour will do:

Mandate the NEWB to track all 16-18 year olds who leave school without a Leaving Certificate.
Develop a social guarantee so that all early school leavers (16-18 years old) will be offered a place in meaningful and appropriate education or training. We can assist those who can work to support themselves, and we can do more for those, including many elderly citizens, who face life on low incomes.

Drugs

Drug use is an escalating social problem in Ireland characterised by poly-drug use, violence and gun crime, alcohol abuse and anti-social behaviour. The numbers of young people experimenting with drugs in our towns, villages and cities is growing at an alarming rate. Having previously been confined mainly to Dublin, in the last decade heroin has spread to every county in Ireland. Poly-drug use is increasingly becoming a reality, while drug and criminal networks are in place nationwide.

The National Drugs Strategy is effectively at a standstill, as the fulfilment of their 100 promises under the strategy remains behind schedule. The Labour Party is still broadly supportive of the principles and objectives of the National Drugs Strategy. However, we believe that it is imperative that the changing nature of the drugs problem in this country is addressed. This is particularly urgent as we come to the end of the 2001-2008 National Drugs Strategy and begin to prepare a successor strategy.

The political will of the present government to fight the problem of substance abuse has clearly evaporated. Labour in government will give renewed impetus to the fight against drugs as conceived in the National Drugs Strategy. By re-focusing and reassessing our approach to the drugs crisis, Labour will ensure that the National Drugs Strategy will remain relevant and effective and will provide a long-term solution to our drug crisis.