Dr Rory Hearne

We live in extreme times. Extreme inequality – where the 8 richest men on the planet have the same wealth as half the entire global population. Here in Ireland the top 20% own half of all the wealth.

But it is also a time of extreme insecurity – a deep sense of fear and trepidation about the present moment (and the future) – how can I have some sort of decent life, or even just survive?

Be that trying to access an affordable secure home, hospital treatment or a living wage. And then there is our children – we are deeply worried about how we can ensure they have the possibility of a better now and even more importantly, a better future.

It is also a time of extreme individualism – where people (once known as citizens with rights) have been commodified by corporations into perpetual ‘consumers’ of products.

And the future increasingly looks like it is going to be an extreme dystopia (some of you might have seen this depicted quite well in the recent movie, Bladerunner) of digitisation and automation.

This presents a horizon of unlimited exploitation of the majority – as human consumer-slaves – by the corporate super-elite, global financial markets and their ‘bots’. And within all this is politics which is ever more distant from the people – hollowed out democracies where politicians and government serve their banker, corporate and financial market masters to the exclusion of their citizens.

But there are signs of hope.

New ‘citizens’ movements are emerging to try challenge this age of extreme inequality, and they are trying to create a new politics that actually represents the majority – and not just a wealthy elite and corporate interests.

From the Momentum movement that has been the backbone of the phenomenal rise in support behind the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, to the ‘People for Bernie’ Campaign supporting Bernie Sanders in the US, and the 15M and Podemos movements in Spain (visible also in the Catalan independence protest).

Here in Ireland we have seen new movements emerge to challenge the injustice of austerity and the unequal recovery –from small grassroots groups like the Ballyhea says no to Bondholder Bailout in Cork to the incredible Right2Water movement that involved hundreds of thousands of people from across the country.

We saw it too in the occupation of Apollo House last Christmas that drew attention to the homelessness crisis, the Tesco and Dunnes’ strikes by workers for a living wage and conditions, and, again in the recent Repeal the 8th pro-choice protests.

There are also tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of citizens acting in co-operative and solidarity ways (i.e. not just consumers) across this country in citizen’s movements, protests, community groups, volunteering with an NGO or homeless support groups, helping to build co-operative ‘not-for-profit’ housing, being active in trade unions.

But you are told every day in the media, at work, in universities and school that you can’t change things and so you just have to accept this age of extremism – be it homelessness, high rents, climate pollution, corrupt politicians, child poverty, unaffordable childcare, and contract work.

But these movements, action, protest and politics challenge this consensus of passive acceptance and assert that there is an alternative and better path. Most importantly, they provide an alternative way of living than just being the atomised, individualised and alienated consumer that is the current dominant form of so-called living today.

This co-operative action, where we work with others to help bring about change for ourselves and the community, country or organisation around us, is a fundamental challenge to the dominant economic thinking that sees us as people seeking individual profit maximisation in a Darwinian ‘fight for survival of the fittest’.

But interestingly, psychological studies on people’s well-being show that “engagement in collective civic action toward a common purpose increases connected­ness among individuals in a community, and connections to fellow human beings satisfy a basic human need for belonging….(which) stave off social isolation and depression”.

We have been sold the neoliberal ‘free-market’ myth that happiness comes from fulfilling our individual material consumerist desires -from having the latest technology – from purchasing what we ‘want’. But in fact, the state of the world around us – be it our community, our country and the planet affects us deeply in a psychological-emotional way.

Our identity and our sense of well-being is affected by the well-being of others.

This is profound as it suggests we cannot be happy if we see fellow citizens in our community suffering. So taking action – like protest – against inequality is not just an act of self-interest or charity – but a logical response that recognises our welfare is bound up with the welfare of others. And it has been found that more equal societies (where clearly the values of solidarity and cooperation are dominant) do better.

However, politics and our shallow democracies in this age of extremism have become a major problem.

Civil society movements can protest and change the frame of debate and influence some policy change but it is at government and national parliament level that decisions are made about the direction of our economies and societies. Increasingly it is in authoritarian, conservative right-wing ways.

But the movements in support of Corbyn and Sanders have recognised this – that the power of the people needs to create a new politics in government that is willing to challenge the power of the privileged, financial markets and corporations.

Here in Ireland, in the run up to the 2016 general election, the successful Right2Water campaign established, Right2Change, a political campaign which sought ‘a fairer, more equal Ireland that benefits all of the people rather than a select few’.

Right2Change developed with the participation of community activists, trade unionists and political representatives, ten policy principles that would underpin a ‘progressive Irish government’ (i.e. a government led by parties of the left and independents, rather than the two right-wing parties of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael that have shown time and time again, decade after decade, their inability and unwillingness to create a fair and socially just society). The principles included the right to water, decent work, housing, health, debt justice, education, democratic reform, equality, a sustainable environment and national resources (read them here  ).

Right2Change convinced 100 candidates to enter a voting transfer pact (including Sinn Féin, People Before Profit and independent candidates) in the 2016 general election. They got 19% of first preference votes and 36 out of 158 seats in the Dáil.

The establishment parties (Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Labour) received their lowest combined support in the history of the state.

But what has happened to the momentum for change since that election? The establishment politics of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backed each other up to ‘shore up the centre’ (ie. protect the status quo) and form a new government of the centre-right.

The various left parties (including Sinn Féin, Social Democrats, People Before Profit etc) and independents, while each have done great work on various issues, they have not worked on developing a common vision, co-ordination or manifesto for a forthcoming election.

And while, despite the housing emergency and wide-scale housing crisis affecting a broad range of people, a citizen’s housing movement has yet to appear although it is growing and could yet emerge from Apollo House, local grassroots housing actions and national housing coalitions. Worth noting that this Taoiseach and the government are building their politics on a PR-image and veneer of addressing issues.

This makes them very vulnerable to anything that shatters that shiny image. Therefore, a large protest campaign uniting private renters, the homeless, those in mortgage arrears and those waiting for social housing together highlighting the devastation caused by the housing crisis would present a formidable challenge to that image and thus the government).

However, with the apparent lack of a broad united left political and citizens movement alternative the most recent opinion polls have shown the centre-right alliance of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil recovering in public support.

But all this can change utterly in an instant as our election (where Fine Gael did much worse than expected) and the recent UK and US elections have shown. Citizen’s movements and new politics that offer hope and a positive vision for a future based on equality can dramatically change the political landscape.

That is why I will be speaking at the ‘Another Ireland is Possible’ Right2Change conference this coming Saturday in the Mansion House in Dublin. I believe, and I know many others do too, that we need a citizen’s movement for hope in Ireland that can transform our country into a Republic of Equality for all.

I will be talking about the housing crisis, solutions that could provide affordable housing and the role of people, citizen action and the need for a genuinely new citizen-led politics to bring about this change. The conference is open to the public and organisers are “encouraging everyone who shares a vision for a fairer, more equal Ireland to join us on Saturday, 4th November 2017 to discuss a pathway towards achieving a truly egalitarian Republic”.

Wealth has the power. But citizen’s movements create a counter power that can challenge all others. It is the power of ordinary people to take away the legitimacy of the government –to withdraw the consent of the people. If enough people protest the government has to listen. The water movement showed that.

But movements and politics must unite in order to create this power. They must bring together all the groups excluded – from the middle and working classes, public and private sector workers, unemployed, lone parents, the youth, disabled, migrants – into a power that government cannot ignore. All those groups working on their own can effect some change but it cannot radically transform societies and economies.

And that is what we need now- not tinkering around at the edges of a system that is producing such extreme inequality and human misery. We need transformation to bring about a caring and flourishing society that the economy serves and not, as we have it now, an economy that dictates and destroys society.

The sad reality is we should be living in an age of extreme hope and not despair. With digital technology and the massive wealth that exists globally (and in Ireland) we should have a world without poverty, without homelessness.

Here in Ireland there is no reason why we can’t have a Republic of equality for all (not just the Taoiseach’s ‘Republic of Opportunity’ for the privileged few) where we guarantee decent housing, health care, education, quality employment, liveable communities, and sufficient caring support to the young, old and disabled- to everyone. Countries like Sweden and Denmark can do it.

Poverty and inequality are not inevitable –they result from societal and political priorities and choices. We need a new politics, and citizen’s led movements to change the current priorities – and to turn fear into hope.

Dr Rory Hearne is a policy analyst, academic, social justice campaigner. He writes here in a personal capacity. Follow Rory on Twitter: @roryhearne

You can register for the November Right2Change conference here (speakers from the ‘People for Bernie’ Campaign, Spanish 15 M Movement, Union of Students in Ireland, Right2Water, Housing/Homeless and Decency for Dunnes workers campaigns)

From top: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy at press briefing in Government Buildings in relation to Budget 2018; Dr Rory Hearne

Last Tuesday I was left shaking my head in disappointment again. I know many others across the country felt the same.

The annual Budget might be a bit of a charade but it does provide a once a year focus on the direction of our economy and society, providing the overriding vision, policies and essential public spending and tax decisions that indicate our priorities as a country.

So the Budget was an ideal opportunity for the government to address the nation, declare the housing crisis an emergency and outline a series of radical and bold initiatives that would finally address the crisis. But instead we got another budget that will benefit the private developers, landlords and wealthy financial vulture investors.

Paschal Donohoe, the Minister for Finance, backed up by his Fine Gael, Independent and Fianna Fail TD colleagues in government, provided more of the same policies that will be inadequate to address the crisis and will continue to make it worse.

In order to get a full picture of the Budget announcements on housing you have to wade through a fair amount of spin, half-truths and misleading figures in order to see the reality – that there was in fact no major increase in the provision of affordable or social housing by the Fine-Gael/Fianna Fail Government in Budget 2018.

Budget 2018 was another opportunity lost. Another budget that will make the housing crisis even worse as it continues the policies that have caused the housing crisis (in particular the low level of building of social and affordable housing by the state).

The building of affordable housing, for rent and sale, by local authorities and housing associations is the one thing the government can actually guarantee will happen, unlike relying on the private sector.

The government just has to increase direct funding to these state bodies or support them to borrow and they can build.

But the increase in funding for direct state building of affordable housing was nothing short of disgraceful. An additional €160 million per year providing 3,000 extra social homes by 2021. That increase won’t even house the additional families who become homeless in the next three years.

They claim that they will build 3,800 social housing units next year, but again we know this is just not true. On the basis of the figures for the first quarter of this year – where the state built just 235 social housing units it suggests the state will build around 1000 units this year which is just a third of the Rebuilding Ireland target.

What is even more misleading is the headline claim that the government will provide a total of 25,500 new “social housing” next year. The overwhelming majority, 19,600, is to come in the form of Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) for low-income tenants in the private rented sector. Another 1,200 are to come from Part V – where the state buys 10% of private developments.

So we can see why we are in such a crisis. The government has essentially privatised the delivery of social housing onto a private housing market that is in complete crisis.

So when the government states it is spending €1.9 billion next year on providing social housing – that is a completely misleading figure. Just over a quarter of it –around €500million will be on direct building housing by the state, the largest chunk (around €800million) will be going to private landlords.

One of the main measures of ‘success’ in the Budget is the increase in private sector housing provision. Again we have misleading figures here (Mel Reynolds and Lorcan Sirr have done excellent research on this showing the actual number of builds are much lower than headline figures).

The Minister for Finance stated, in the Budget:

“Our actions to support the sector, though, are bearing fruit. Commencement notices for new housing are up by 47%. Planning permissions are up by 49%.”

But these figures tell us nothing of when they will actually be built, and even more importantly at what price they will be sold. The only private building going on is for houses that are going for sale at well above actually affordable prices.

So what is the government doing to provide affordable housing?

Their first announcement on affordable housing was an extra €60 million for the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) which “provides enabling infrastructure on key sites to open up lands for early development”, this pays for the roads, drainage etc for private developers to encourage them to start building.

But there is no clear mechanism for how this funding will ensure the building of affordable housing on these sites. Cherrywood, for example, has received €15 million from LIHAF, yet the state looks like it will be paying €350,000 for social housing there and an ‘affordable’ 2 bed room apartment could be in the region of €400,000.

There is a major issue here over what is defined as affordable housing. The government defines it as in the region of €320,000.

Yet if we take the Central Bank definition of affordable housing as 3½ times your gross income, and two thirds of households have a gross income less than €60,000. This means an affordable house for two-thirds of households should be in the region of €210,000, a long way from €320,000 or €400,000.

And these figures show up the major flaw in the government’s big affordable housing announcement of the budget – the setting up of the Home Building Finance Ireland fund, with €750 million (coming from the former Pension Reserve Fund – state funding in the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF) available “for commercial investment in housing finance”.

Developers claim they can’t build a house for less than €320,000 in Dublin, so the only housing that will be built by developers financed from this fund will be well in excess of that price i.e. will not be affordable for most people.

The interest rate being charged by this fund to developers will be 8%, significantly higher than the 1 per cent rate the government can borrow and fund building at. This is another expense that house buyers will have to pay for. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that builders will take up the fund – it relies on their profitability assessments and land prices etc.

They could also use it for buying land and thus inflating land prices further – like where ISIF already funded the private developer Cairn to pay the inflated price for the recent RTE land sale.

It is worth contrasting this €750 million fund for private developer provided unaffordable housing with the miserly €12 million being made available “to unlock Local Authority owned land specifically to deliver affordable housing on those sites using models like co-operative housing”.

This is despite the Cooperative housing approaches like O Cualann Cooperative in Ballymun building housing for sale at €170,000 on which the housing Minister has said “have already proven to be successful but are now needed at scale”. So why not actually fund affordable housing construction?

The other strategy is the ‘increase’ in the vacant site levy from 3% to 7%. Again the devil is in the detail. The increased rate of 7% will only apply in 2020. Is this a joke? No seriously, any owner of a vacant site who does not develop their land pays a 3% levy in 2019 and then, if they continue to hoard their land in 2019, they will not pay the 7% rate until 2020.

Given the major problem of land hoarding that is taking place. Nama for example has stated that it has sold land sites with the capacity to deliver 50,000 housing units but the majority of it is being hoarded as to date only 3,700 units had been built or were under construction.

Why is the levy not being put in place from January 1, 2018? This is an emergency. And, for every 10 per cent increase in house prices it is estimated that land values increase by 35 per cent. So the vacant site levy should, if it was to incentivise land sales and building, should be put at least at the annual increase in land value i.e. in the range of 35%.

While I am on the subject of NAMA, there was more nonsense during the week from the Finance Minister, claiming NAMA had done a great job. NAMA sold half of its land to vultures and international investors who are now hoarding that land and playing a major factor in the house price increases and lack of supply.

Furthermore NAMA claimed it was going to build 20,000 affordable homes by 2020. But just 2000 are under construction. NAMA has 1000 hectares in Dublin that could build 25,000 homes. So NAMA could be doing a lot more to address the crisis if the government wanted it to do so.

But instead it wants to show the global investors and the IMF and Europe – NAMA is being wound up and will have a cash surplus – a great ‘success’ for Ireland Inc. even if it is playing a major role in worsening our housing crisis. And the new House Building Finance Ireland that is providing the loans to developers will be staffed with personnel from NAMA. I guess we won’t see much affordable housing be financed there then.

Back to the lost opportunity of this budget. The government could have made bold, imaginative and radical proposals and actioned policies that would address the crisis – such as forgoing the tax cuts it gave out (what most people gained from them was miserly anyway so why not put it all together and do something significant and meaningful with the money?).

Instead it could have used the hundreds of millions given away in tax cuts and the €1.3bn allocated to a ‘rainy day’ fund (again – WTF is with this– there is a f***ing flood going on right now in housing. People are drowning in unaffordable rents and house prices, mortgage arrears and homelessness).

It could have used this funding and invested it in local authorities to build affordable homes that people need badly. And instead of allocating the €750 million to finance private developers it should have used it to seed fund the setting up a of new semi-state affordable homes building company that would actually build affordable homes.

The state through local authorities, and state agencies and NAMA has significant land banks that it could build affordable housing on now – and not be waiting for the private sector to build ( what will be unaffordable) housing in a year, or two years or ten years time when it sees it can make sufficient profit worth its while to build housing.

Of course, the longer the lack of supply goes on the higher the prices for the vulture land hoarders, the higher the rents for the Real Estate Investment Trusts, the more state subsidies to private landlords – so its suits the private developers and landowners to sit back and wait – as the crisis worsens their profits rise.

The government knows this. They know the private speculative building sector will never build ‘affordable housing’. So be very clear about in who’s interests government housing policy is working. And if they don’t realise it that is because they are blinded by their ideological faith in the private market. As it is only the state, and not-for-profit housing companies that will build affordable housing on a sufficient scale to meet housing need.

In announcing a radical housing plan the government could have asked for the solidarity and support of the Irish people in embarking on such a historic effort to address the humanitarian and economic disaster that is our housing crisis.

I believe people would have supported that if it was put in the context of a new national housing plan to provide affordable housing – to provide the human right of an affordable and secure home – for all those excluded from the housing market – from people looking to buy an affordable home, renters looking for security of tenure and affordable rents, those on social housing waiting lists needing a public house and the homeless who most urgently need a secure home.

I spoke to a homeless mother in one of the Family Hubs (which are supposed to be an improvement on hotels for homeless families but in reality are a political strategy to effectively hide the homeless crisis) the other day and she told me that her son, who has suffered major anxiety since they became homeless and went into a hub, is “asking Santa for a house for Christmas”.

This is what the housing disaster is doing to our citizens. Where a child’s dream is replaced by a living nightmare.

Dr Rory Hearne is a policy analyst, academic, social justice campaigner. He writes here in a personal capacity. Follow Rory on Twitter: @roryhearne

Rollingnews

Tracy McGinnis with her son Brendan and (top) conditions at their current rented home

Dr Rory Hearne writes:

Tracy McGinnis and her two boys, Declan aged 9 and Brendan aged 13 (who is severely disabled), face the threat of becoming homeless.

Their story provides another stark example of why the government must take real action to solve the housing crisis and declare it a national emergency.

The experience of the McGinnis family shows the extra challenges and suffering faced by carers and the disabled in trying to find suitable and affordable accommodation in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis.

I met Tracy, Declan and Brendan last week and spoke to her about her housing conditions, the impact on her children, how difficult it to ‘speak out’, and public attitudes towards the vulnerable and the housing crisis.

Brendan, who has just turned thirteen, was born with Congenital CMV, which means he can’t walk or talk, has severe epilepsy, cerebral palsy and scoliosis. He is not expected to live longer than 18. He smiled with his rainbow coloured teddy bear tucked under his arm as he sat in his wheel chair during the interview.

Tracy has a Master’s Degree and worked as a therapist and with NGOs before she had to leave her career behind to become his full time carer when he was three.

She explains that currently they live in a private rented house in Kildare which has major problems:

“the house is so cold and so draughty, the boiler leaks kerosene, there is no light coming into the kitchen, the ceiling is not insulated.

The environmental health officer said it is in violation of various standards. It is half under construction and there are rolls of fibre glass insulation in the attic which is open and the wind sweeps down through to the rest of the house and I am worried about it affecting Declan and Brendan’s lungs.

There is mould growing on the ceiling in the bathroom. I have no lease and the landlord is unregistered”. It is, she says, “unsafe unsuitable, unfit and its putting Brendan’s health at risk, and mine as I try to care for him in a place that’s not suitable and not modified and can’t be modified for Brendan’s needs”.

The photographs of the house shows just how unsuitable it is: a shower chair sitting unbalanced in a bathtub; no safety rails; and she is unable to use a hoist as the doorway is too narrow and the hoist legs cannot go under the tub.

Tracy describes it, as “dangerous, inhumane and risking Brendan’s life as well as my health and safety as his carer as I am forced to carry Brendan in my arms across a wet floor, through doorways, from one room to the other.”

She has been trying to find somewhere else in Kildare to rent, and that would take the state-supported Housing Assistance Payment, which is the government’s main form of social housing support. Under HAP, the local authority pays the landlord the rent and the tenant pays a lower rent to the local authority.

Tracy is eligible for the HAP scheme. However, she has found it impossible to find landlords that will take them.

Landlords, she feels, are discriminating against her, “the landlords were saying they don’t think the house would suit my son’s needs – I heard that a number of times”.

She can’t stay in her current accommodation and so is trying to find rental accommodation that would take the HAP payment and be suitable for Brendan’s needs near Kilkenny City which would be close to Brendan’s school and care supports, and Declan’s old school.

Tracy is terrified of becoming homeless.

She said:

“Brendan can’t go into emergency accommodation – a hotel or B & B. He needs to have his medical bed as it helps with pressure sores and his scoliosis – he needs his oxygen near his bed and this can’t happen in a hotel or B&B”.

Tracy’s situation highlights a major problem with HAP, which I have also found in my research on other families experience of homelessness. It’s extremely difficult for vulnerable families to find suitable and affordable housing in the private rental sector.

Modification grants are only available for local authority housing or for a family that owns their own home. Renting someone else’s home does not allow the family to avail of any home modification grants which means the family cannot modify the home to safely and properly care for the disabled family member.

As Tracy explains:

“if a family with a disabled child is left to the private rental market, they are left at a tremendous risk of homelessness. They could be given notice to vacate after a 12 month lease and be back at the near impossible task of trying to find a suitable rental house again .If they are not made homelessness, they are more than likely forced to settle renting an unsuitable, unsafe house”

As the photographs above demonstrate renting a house does not provide security.

A social house, she says, would be more appropriate as it can be modified to suit Brendan’s complex healthcare needs. “We need a long term house that we can make a home secure for our future and modify for Brendan’s care.”

She wants a permanent home as she doesn’t want to ever have to leave the home where Brendan will spend his last years with her and his brother.

“I want to stay there, in that home – in our home – where he was for his remaining time, which I hope and pray is a good number of years still to come. I don’t want to ever have to leave behind the home where all those final memories will have been created”

She explains also that Declan needs to be settled:

“Every day he mentions the word homeless”. Tracy explains of her 9 year old son. “That’s not an exaggeration. He asks ‘when we become homeless what will happen? I don’t want my friends to know’. Every day there is at least one sentence involving homeless. This is not fair and not right so I’m trying to do everything I can to rectify it.”

Tracy, Brendan and Declan’s story is not unique. There are tens of thousands of families and children facing homelessness or living in housing insecurity in Ireland.

What is important about their story is the way in which it highlights the fundamental need for us all to have a secure, permanent, home and the deep meaning that is attached to home – as a place where a family can carry out its daily routine without fear of disruption and as a place where love is put into practice each day – where the vulnerable can be cared for – where memories of loved ones are created.

And where they can be held on when people go. There is a concept in psychology called ‘ontological security’ which captures the importance of home- it is the idea of a secure base from which normal functioning can take place – without it people can suffer mental illness.

Housing therefore cannot be treated as just another commodity as policy currently does. It needs to be seen in its key role as providing a secure base – and the private rental sector in Ireland does not provide this and thus exposes people to real mental health stress.

The solutions to this crisis are clear: the government must declare the housing crisis a national emergency; the state must build social and affordable homes (for rental and ownership) on a mass scale and not leave it to the profit-seeking and failed private housing market; private tenants need to be given real security of tenure (remove the ease with which landlords can evict), and there should be a referendum to enshrine the right to housing in the constitution to guarantee all our citizens a secure affordable home.

It is obvious now that citizen action is needed to get this as the current political and state institutions have shown themselves to be unprepared to enact people-centred housing policies and instead are focused on suiting property industry and vulture investors.

But why is there not more public action and protest taking place around the housing crisis?

Tracy explains that those most affected by the crisis face huge challenges that make It difficult for them to raise their voice, “people are exhausted and depressed and all our energy is devoted to trying not to drown”.

She explains she would not have gone public if it wasn’t for Brendan’s needs and her fear of him, ‘literally dying’, if they had to go into emergency accommodation. Also, she believes that the equal marriage referendum mobilised people because:

it was ‘a happy subject – about a simple idea – an equal right to love’ but “people can’t wrap their minds around disability or homelessness because haven’t been touched by it but they have all been touched by love.”

This is a challenge to those campaigning on the housing crisis – how to connect with the large bulk of the population, increasing numbers of whom are affected by the crisis but do not see a common link with others affected, such as the homeless.

But if you think about it – most people have a home, however unaffordable or temporary – and perhaps this is the missing connection campaigners need to focus on – to get people to think about home, what it is, the importance of it, the impact of its loss, and why everyone should have the right to a secure and affordable home.

Part of the problem is that in terms of housing – too often people who are homeless or on welfare or low incomes are blamed for their problem –just looking for ‘hand-outs’ and ‘everything for free’ and are called ‘scroungers’.

The Taoiseach’s recent comments about ‘welfare cheats’ and standing up for ‘those who get up early in the morning’ doesn’t help this stigma and division.

Of course, part of the intention behind the ‘getting everything for free’ and ‘scrounger’ narrative is about trying to reduce the state’s and politicians responsibilty for supporting vulnerable people. But the vulnerable face homelessness – as Tracy’s case shows – not because of their own fault – but because the system excludes them and doesn’t value all human beings equally and their rights and dignity – because it puts investor’s profits and the ‘market’ first.

There is a lot you – as a citizen – can do to try end this crisis. Call your local TD, get involved in local housing action groups, a political party, get your trade union to raise the issue. This isn’t going to change until the public makes it a political issue and making the system feel the pressure of our abhorrence. It’s up to you, to all of us, to act to change it.

I will leave the last word with Declan who was a little shy when we met but emailed me later:

“I don’t want to be homeless. Brendan would be in danger if he goes into a hotel (emergency accommodation). And where would I go to school? And what about Brendan, how would he get care? I feel worried and scared about being homeless. I’m worried about us”.

How can your heart not be broken reading this? It enrages me to think that the Irish state, because of its failure to provide affordable housing, is doing this to tens of thousands of children every day – removing from them their secure base of a home.

Tracy has an excellent blog where she writes about her experience which you can read here:

She is also speaking at the Inner City Helping Homeless annual homeless awareness campaign ‘Light the Liffey’ Tuesday October 10 at 8pm opposite CHQ building.

Dr Rory Hearne is a Post-Doctoral Researcher in Maynooth University, has written and researched extensively on housing, privatisation, and inequality and is a social justice advocate, he has written two reports recently on the housing crisis in Ireland; With Dr Mary Murphy: Investing in the Right to a Home; A Home or a Wealth Generator.

From top: Social welfare queue in Cumberland Street, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin; Rory Hearne

Dr Rory Hearne tackles the statistics behind Ireland’s growing inequality and challenges the narrative that those on social welfare receive the majority of state benefits.

Dr Hearne writes:

In 2007, prior to the economic crash and austerity 11.8% of the Irish population (about 485,000 people) suffered from material deprivation. A decade later, and four years into a supposed economic ‘recovery’, 25.5%, over a quarter of our population (that is 1 million people) are suffering from material deprivation.

That is an additional half a million people affected by deprivation.

So how can any one seriously argue that austerity ‘worked’ in Ireland and that we are in a recovery?

In fact, for some of our most vulnerable and socially excluded groups things are even worse. Take lone parent families for example. In 2007, 35.6% of lone parent families suffered deprivation.

Today their deprivation rate is a shocking 57.9%. And while the general deprivation rate dropped from 29% in 2014 to 25.5%, the deprivation rate for lone parent families showed no significant change from 2014 (when it was 58.7%).

While our children – the future of our country – 31% of all children suffer deprivation, which is double the 2007 rate of 15.9%.

But what does suffering from material deprivation mean?

It means that an individual or household experiences two or more types of enforced deprivation from a list of eleven deprivation indicators such as being without heating at some stage in the last year, being unable to afford new (not second-hand) clothes, being unable to afford to keep the home adequately warm, being unable to afford to have family or friends for a drink or meal once a month, being unable to afford to buy presents for family or friends at least once a year or being unable to afford to have family or friends for a drink or a meal once a month.

The CSO provides a further break down of what proportion of people are affected by each of the deprivation indicators.

These show that there was in fact an increase in the proportion of people who have been unable to keep their home adequately warm in the last year, rising from 8.8% in 2014 to 9% of the population in 2015.

While 13.6% (almost 650,000 people) went without heating at some point in the last year (this is over double the rate in 2007). The most common types of deprivation experienced were an inability to replace worn out furniture (24.4%), afford a morning/afternoon/evening out (18.6%) and have family/friends over for a meal/drink (16.8%).

There are 257,000 people in Ireland (5.4% of the population) who are unable to afford to buy presents for family or friends at least once a year.

The recent Generation F’D documentary on RTÉ2 showed a father suffering the pain of looking to Christmas and being unable to buy his children presents. But among those at risk of poverty (16.9% of the population – they have an annual income below €11, 863, or 60% of the national median income), 14% were unable to buy presents for friends or family.

The inequality at the heart of the recovery is also shown by the fact that for this section of the population (approximately 800,000 people) who are ‘at risk of poverty’, there was an increase in the last year in eight of the eleven types of deprivation. But for those not at risk of poverty, there was a decline in all eleven types of deprivation.

If we look at deprivation by income decile we can also see the same pattern of inequality. 42% of the bottom income decile (they have an income less than €195 per week) suffer three or more forms of deprivation.

This is almost 13 times the rate of the top income decile (where just 3.3% suffer three or more forms of deprivation). The weekly income of the top decile is greater than €764 per week.

The figures also show the deeply unequal nature of our society and economy. They show that the top 20% get 40% of net income while the bottom fifth of our population get just 8% of all income.

Of course this doesn’t include wealth which is even more unequal. The top 20% have 73% of all wealth in Ireland in contrast to the bottom half of the population with just 5% of all wealth.

But a very interesting table, Table A 2, shows the average weekly equivalised income by decile and the composition of that income.

From this we can see that the bottom decile has a net disposable income of just €146 per week while the top decile has a net disposable income of €1,066 or 7.3 times the bottom decile.

But what’s really fascinating is that the table shows ‘social transfers’ from the state (unemployment benefits, pension, housing allowances received) received per decile and the results of this are not what you would expect.

It shows that the top decile received, on average, €164 per week in social transfers from the state. That is more than the bottom decile which received €119.99 per week in social transfers. So it shows that the state gives more to the wealthiest and highest income households than the bottom!

This challenges the narrative that it is those on social welfare receive the majority of state benefits and highlights that there is a significant welfare going to the wealthiest households as well.

In fact, the top decile pays, on average, €408 per week in tax, yet receives in social transfers (this is excluding tax reliefs etc), almost 40% of this total tax back in social transfers. So 40% of the tax being paid by the top income earners is being returned to them through social transfers.

This is very significant and challenges the argument that the top are being over taxed.

Barnardos, the children’s charity were absolutely correct in their response to the recent CSO figures to state that the “Continued lack of improvement in child poverty rates is a national scandal that requires urgent intervention.”

As they explain:

“Childhood is short, yet the experiences we have shape the adults we become and the lives we lead. Children living in poverty live life on the margins, excluded from opportunities and often unable to break the cycle of poverty. Poverty affects every aspect of a child’s life and has short and long term consequences on their development, health, education outcomes and life chances. Worryingly, children in lone parent households continue to experience poverty and deprivation at a far greater rate than children in two parent households”.

While, SPARK, the lone parent campaign group, has called on the Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone to establish an immediate task force to tackle poverty in lone parent families. They have set up a petition in response to the CSO data arguing:

“The recent CSO data shows consistent poverty in the state is 8.7%. For 2 parent families with 3 or less children this drops to 7.7% but for children in lone parent families it is 26.2%. It is fundamentally wrong that a child is almost 3 1/2 times more likely to live in poverty based purely on their family status. We know childhood poverty has long reaching effects and we owe it to all children to ensure they have a fair chance”.

Take a minute to sign their petition here

Dr Rory Hearne is a policy analyst, academc, social justice campaigner. He writes here in a personal capacity. Follow Rory on Twitter: @roryhearne