THE CUT in the minimum wage was criticised yesterday in a document approved by Ireland’s Catholic bishops.
From Crisis to Hope: Working to Achieve the Common Good, was prepared by the Catholic Bishops’ Council for Justice and Peace (CJP) and launched at the Capuchin day centre in Dublin.
Described as “not a political manifesto” it was, however, launched in anticipation of the general election on Friday and forthcoming elections in Northern Ireland. One of the document’s authors, Fr Eoin Cassidy, said in both elections voters “have a responsibility to vote for people who support the common good” which he described as the purpose of politics.
It was difficult to countenance the cut in the minimum wage in a situation where large six-figure salaries continue to be awarded to senior executives of semi-State companies, he said.
The minimum wage cut amounted to almost 12 per cent of annual income for people concerned and mainly affected migrants who are not represented by unions and have no power. He was critical of cuts in disability and carers’ allowances and in the blind pension. In the context of social solidarity, he said: “I believe the Government has got it wrong.”
The document says “the main burden of responsibility for our current (financial) predicament lies with those who have in the recent past, and in some cases still do, exercise positions of leadership in our society.” All, however, “made some contribution to the culture which has generated this crisis”. The document criticises cuts in the minimum wage and stresses that “there must be an end to the bonus culture which is so destructive of civic virtue” and which is “one of the principal causes of the current malaise in Irish society.”
It undermined a belief in the value and ideals of public/civil service while creating unacceptably large income gaps between different sectors of society.
But, where social solidarity is concerned, the document concludes it was by no means certain Irish people would choose it over a low tax policy.
It also calls for the strengthening of the family based on marriage between a man and a woman and describes abortion as a denial of the “inalienable right to life”.
Bishop John Kirby of Clonfert and Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin Ray Field attended a function to announce the document yesterday.
Bishop Field said the document aimed to “ensure that the human cost of the current crisis will be given due recognition, and not be drowned in a sea of figures and statistics”. “Do we want to be seen as a nation that values economic efficiency above the wellbeing of its citizens, or do we want to be a nation that values, cares for and protects people, families and communities?” he asked.
Bishop Kirby said people had neglected the principles of solidarity and placed private sectional interests ahead of the good of the community as a whole. “Greed became dominant, trust was betrayed and the result was the recession in which we now are.”
At national level “the failure of so many institutions, including sadly the Church itself, led to a betrayal of trust by ignoring or trivialising the importance of ethics in business. Those in authority failed to act in the interest of the common good and in some cases showed a flagrant disregard to anything associated with it,” he said.
He was critical of the fact that over the past few years the Overseas Aid budget of the Irish government has been cut on three occasions. It is now €284 million less than what it was in 2008.
