The Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI), which represents some 15,000 religious sisters, brothers and communities throughout the State, has in recent years established itself as a thoughtful and provocative voice in the debate on social justice and equality. Much of its recent work, especially that under the aegis of its Justice Commission, has presented a strong counterpoint to some of the dizzy celebration of the "Celtic Tiger" economy; CORI has painted a much bleaker picture of a society where hundreds of thousands of people live in wretched conditions and where the gap between rich and poor is widening.
Its new study Pathways To a Basic Income, published yesterday, is based on the challenging proposition that no amount of adjustment to the taxation and welfare systems can produce a viable model which will eliminate poverty and/or the enforced dependency of the unemployed and their families. The alternative favoured by CORI is radical: the conference argues for the payment of a basic income which would be granted, unconditionally, to everyone on an individual basis - all within an integrated tax and welfare system. The benefit - £60 for most adults and £21 for children - would be paid irrespective of income from other sources and without any requirement that the person receiving it would have to accept a job, if offered one.
The proposals by CORI are praiseworthy at least in their general ambitions. Its demand for the integration of the tax and welfare codes - which often appear to be moving in opposite directions - should help to focus renewed attention on a key demand of the Commission on Taxation which has been ignored. The payment of a basic income could help to achieve other important objectives. Undoubtedly, it would make it financially worthwhile for an unemployed person to take up a job and reduce the incidence of those falling into the so called "welfare trap". The proposals might help to spread the burden of taxation more equitably and would provide some recognition for home making and child rearing.
The key question, of course, is whether the State could afford to underwrite such a basic income policy without introducing still more penal levels of personal taxation. The conference maintains that its proposals could be funded by a tax rate of somewhere between 44 and 49 per cent, although the Nevin report on the integration of tax and social welfare was markedly more sceptical about the feasibility of any basic income scheme.
On the face of it, the kind of payments favoured by CORI would appear to require substantial tax increases - especially for the top 30 per cent of earners - on a scale which no political party has the courage to propose at this time. The forthcoming study of the basic income proposals - agreed by Government as part of the Partnership 2000 negotiations - should help to illuminate matters. In the interim, the CORI proposals merit further consideration and more rigorous economic analysis; they should help to concentrate minds on the real and persistent level of inequality in Irish society. If we are serious about maintaining the quality of life in Ireland, for example, by reducing the tendency towards violent crime and by eliminating the drugs scourge, these are the sort of radical measures which our society may be asked to pay for.