Madam, - The claim by your anonymous columnist Drapier (May 28th) that I gave the Government a 9 out of 10 rating for its Budget is untrue. I was asked by the Week in Politics programme (RTE 1, May 22nd) to rate the government on the social welfare component of its last three Budgets. My response was that I would give them 3 out of 10 for the Budgets of 2003 and 2004 and give them 9 out of 10 for raising the lowest social welfare adult rates in Budget 2005.
Budget 2005 raised the lowest social welfare rates by €14 a week which was the amount required if Government is to meet its commitment in the National Anti-Poverty Strategy to raise these rates to 30 per cent of gross average industrial earnings by 2007. It was the rise the Cori Justice Commission sought for these social welfare rates in its Budget Choices policy briefing published last October. When Government takes the steps required to meet its targets we have no hesitation in acknowledging this fact.
However a Budget consists of a great deal more than increases in adult social welfare rates. Your anonymous contributor conflates the two which would raise serious questions about his/her capacity for balanced critique. I hope Drapier was demonstrating his/her capacity for polemic rather than analysis.
Our recently published socio-economic review provides a detailed analysis of Government policy on a wide range of issues, acknowledges what has been achieved and identifies deficits in infrastructure and social provision that remain to be addressed. That review contains proposals to ensure economic development, social equity and sustainability. Copies are available to anyone who wishes to know our real position on a wide range of budgetary and related issues. The document can be accessed on our website www.cori.ie/justice. Even a cursory reading of this or any other of our publications would show the reader that much remains to be done if Ireland is to be a society characterised by fairness, social inclusion and wellbeing. At all times both government and opposition political parties can depend on the Cori Justice Commission naming the situation as it really is. - Yours, etc,
Fr Sean Healy, S.M.A., Director, Cori Justice Commission, Bloomfield Avenue, Dublin 4.