The average Dubliner is £44 a week worse off than someone living in the midlands, according to Prof P. J. Drudy of Trinity College, Dublin. He was speaking at a conference of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed.
The general secretary of the INOU, Mr Mike Allen, said that Prof Drudy's findings "give credence to the experiences that we are hearing about". It raised serious questions about the Government's proposed regionalisation programme.
Prof Drudy told the conference in Dublin that GDP figures used to identify Objective 1 areas of the country failed to give accurate levels of poverty. "To get a real picture you have to work with the disposable income of people."
Looking at national census returns between 1971 and 1996, he said that 29,000 well-paid industrial jobs had been lost to Dublin, while such employment grew by 30 per cent to 40 per cent elsewhere in the State. Low-paid service industry jobs now predominated in Dublin.
The prevalence of low pay, higher levels of unemployment and higher living costs meant that the average Dubliner has £44 a week less disposable income than the average inhabitant of the midlands region, the professor said. These figures do not take account of the latest surge in house prices.
The Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Mr Chris Flood, told the conference that the Government would take into account the needs of urban blackspots, regardless of the regionalisation process. However, Mr Allen said that Prof Drudy's findings suggested the problem was far greater than previously thought. Not all Dubliners were worse off than the rest of the country, but there was clear evidence of concentrated deprivation that had to be addressed.