THE IRISH REPUBLIC needs a new proclamation. This was the message Labour backbencher Aodhán Ó’Ríordáin sent today as he spoke of the political system’s neglect of those living in poverty.
The TD was speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Donegal earlier today where he said that our educational system is failing and this is one of the main contributors to social injustice in the country.
“We do not have a State educated system, we have a State funded system,” he said, adding that the government has “neglected the needs of poorer children”.
He said the government spend on early childhood education, at 1.5 per cent of the overall education budget, is more than nine times lower than in countries like Hungary.
“Every international study compiled anywhere by anyone worth listening to has pointed to a longterm economic return from such an investment,” Ó’Ríordáin said.
The TD also hit out at schools that are “manipulating their enrolment rules to make sure they remain as white and as middle-class as possible”.
Neglect of poorer communities
Ó’Ríordáin said our “obsession with home ownership” means we have little sympathy for those on social housing lists, forgetting that many people in this country can trace their family past to a council house.
He said that the needs of the building industry have “remained paramount” and that croneyism has seen politicians advancing the causes of individual constituents for their own political gain rather than working on solutions to issues affecting the wider community. The TD also claimed that politicians neglect poorer communities and young people because they know the voting numbers in these groups are low.
Many communities have been severely affected by inequality, the TD said, which is “damaging to society and its self-esteem”. He said that judging by our prison intake, ” the greatest crime in Irish society” is poverty.
Ó’Ríordáin said that “perhaps we need a new proclamation” and the Republic now needs to “restate its values and goals and treat the electorate with respect”.
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