How Much Inequality is there in Ireland
and Who Cares?
Pobal Conference
Realising Equality and Inclusion: Building Better Policy and Practice.
Dublin Croke Park Conference Centre November 22nd 2007
Kathleen Lynch,
UCD Equality Studies Centre,
School of Social Justice
www.ucd.ie/esc
Context 1: privatising of public services
through neutralised neo-liberal language
• Public Services including Education, Health and Caring
are seen as the new target for investors –once privatised
(GATS agreement, EU Services Directive)
– Reorganisation of the public sector is presented as a simple Technical
Solution to technical problems to improve ‘efficiencies’
•
•
There is an institutionalising of market values by technical processes e.g.
the creation of ‘internal markets’ within institutions– each department
competes with the other for funding/focus on what can be measured
Hidden hand of the market is masquerading as neutral through the
discourses of ‘restructuring higher education’ ‘re-organising the health
services ‘regenerating public housing’
– The Operational Focus masks the way public sector services are being
commercialized (albeit packaged in the development discourses of
‘centres of excellence’ ‘world class universities’);
– Pragmatic focus hides the Growing elision of the differences between
public interest values and commercial values in the running of state services
2
Why Commercialisation is problematic for
Equality of Access, Participation and
Outcomes
• The State is an in-eliminable agent in matters of justice: only the
state can guarantee to individual persons the right to be
educated, to good health care, housing, public transport.
– If the state absolves itself of the responsibility to protect its
members, rights become more contingent; in a commercial
system the right to education will be contingent on the ability
to pay.
• Democratic Accountability must be distinguished from Market
Accountability
• In a fully democratically accountable system, each
individual has an equal right to access, participation and
outcomes
• In a market-led system accountability is contingent on
market capacity or resources
3
Context 2: Classical Liberal Equal Opportunities
Perspective informs equality legislation and public
policy-making
•
‘its credit is good as long as it never tries to cash its cheques’ (R.H. Tawney,
1964) – speaking about liberal equal opportunities policies
• Equal Formal Rights – right not to experience discrimination in terms
of access to and participation within services primary protection in law
• Benefits: prohibits grosser forms of direct discrimination but often only
after litigation by individuals (no right to class action)
• Limitations of the Liberal approach to rights:
– Advantages the relatively advantaged among the disadvantaged
– Migrant workers are the new disadvantaged (especially in the 3 Cs
Catering/Serving, Cleaning and Caring) unskilled Irish-born
workers still disadvantaged, + Travellers + Disabled People – as
are lone parents, carers (most of whom are women) and children
– Inequalities are distributed differently across groups but not
eliminated
– Individualises the problem of inequality – injustice becomes a
personal pathology –blamed for your own poverty in ‘Celtic Tiger’
Ireland
4
Limitations of liberalism in the
pursuit of equality
– Not concerned with eliminating substantive
inequalities of wealth, power, status and care that
produce the inequalities of opportunity in the first
instance and that reproduce inequalities anew in each
new generation
• Constant re-allocations and re-designations are required
as inequalities are reproduced anew in each sector of
low-waged employment
• Ongoing redistributions or searching for protection for
group rights (women are a good example as are
Travellers) leads to a backlash against marginalised
groups
5
The Myth of equality of opportunity
without equality of condition
– Equality of opportunity is about equal formal rights; it is about making
sure the rules are fair for distributing educational ‘goods’ or privileges –
changing some of the faces at the top of the hierarchy
– Equality of condition is about ensuring that all people are as equal as
possible in relation to the central conditions of their lives. It is about
eliminating hierarchies of wealth, power and privilege, including the
unequal gender division of care labour, so that everyone has roughly
equal prospects for a good life.
•
International evidence is overwhelming that the more unequal a society is
economically (i.e. in terms of incomes and wealth), the more unequal it is
educationally, socially and in health terms;
–
•
There is no meaningful equality of opportunity without equality of condition
Major Research in the health area showing this - R.W. Wilkinson, 2005, The
Impact of Inequality: how to make sick societies healthier, London: Routledge.
6
Liberal policies do not eliminate
inequalities: evidence
– Irish Travellers have a significantly lower life expectancy (10 years) than settled
people/ Sudden Infant Death rates are 12 times the national average
– 71% of Traveller women experienced verbal abuse for being Travellers
– Housing 1998(Traveller Accommodation) Act has no sanctions on local
authorities who do not provide accommodation/
– 63% of Travellers over 15 years of age have left school (Source: Survey of
Traveller Women and 2002 Census)
– Disabled people are 2.5 times less likely to be employed than non-disabled
people
– Migrant workers –Integration is not possible if there is segregation by schooling
and segregation by housing is the major problem facilitating educational
segregation (Heckmann, 2007) European Forum for Migration Studies
– Ad hoc approach to integration – need for a Green and White Paper (Mcgorman
and Sugrue, 2007)
– National Committee on Educational Disadvantage? Role under the Education
Act, 1998
– Intercultural Education: Primary Challenges Dublin 15 (report to the Dep. Of Ed.
by E. McGorman and C.Sugrue, 2007) and Report by R. Heckmann (2007) to the
European Commission by NESSE on Education and the Integration of Migrants
7
Distribution of Wealth via Wages
• The share of national wealth going to workers has being
declining at a higher rate in Ireland since the early 1990s
than in the EU generally; Only the poorer EU Eastern
European states compensate employees at an
equivalent rate: e.g. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
• The Welfare effort has been declining in Ireland
•
•
Source European Commission Statistical Annex of European Economy,
Autumn 2007
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy
/2007/statannex0207_en.pdf - accessed 17th Nov. 2007
8
Distribution of Wealth via Wages
(see K. Allen, 2007, Corporate Takeover of Ireland)
Table 1 Wage Share;Total Economy:
Compensation per Employee as % of GDP at Factor Cost Per Person Employed
80
75
%
70
65
74
71.8
73.2
71.2
71.4
72.9
68.7
66.3
66
62.3
61.8
60
55.8
55
50
EU15
Ireland
1980-1990
UK
1991-2000
2001-2009
Finland
9
Are Social Expenditures a way of compensating for
inequalities in wealth in Ireland?
No
• Country
Total Social Expenditure % on Education % on Health
Sweden
France
Netherlands
UK
Slovenia
Czech Repub.
Ireland
Lithuania
•
•
» as a % of GDP
as a % of GDP
as a % of GDP
49.4
45.7
27.6
26.4
25.3
20.2
15.9
14.1
7.7
5.8
5.1
5.3
6.1
4.4
4.3
5.9
9.2
9.7
9.1
7.7
8.2
7.1
7.3
5.7
Social Expenditures have decreased between 1994 (19.7% of GDP)
and 2006 (15.9%);
Source: Tables, 4.1 and 4,2, Central Statistics Office (CSO) Measuring
Ireland’s Progress, 2006. accessed at www.cso.ie/ October 12th 2007
10
Are Social Expenditures a way of Compensating
for inequalities in Wealth in Ireland?
Expenditure as % of GDP
Table 2: Expenditure as % of GDP
Health
Education
Social
0
Sweden
Slovenia
10
20
30
France
Netherlands
Czech Republic
Ireland
40
UK
Lithuania
50
11
Housing
• Housing is defined as an investment, as ‘Property’, not a ‘Right’
• There has been a steady decline in investment in public
housing/local authority since 2003 and this has not been matched by
any significant increase in social housing
• Policies on integrated housing have been set aside in many
developments
• LA houses built in 2006 is roughly the same as in 2003 despite the
significant increase in population
• Source: Table 8.2 CSO Report Measuring Ireland’s progress,
2006 + direct communication from the Department of the
Environment)
12
Lack in State Investment in Public
Housing
Housing
93419
2006
1240
1153
3968
2005
1330
918
4409
2004
1607
971
3539
2003
1617
456
4516
80957
76954
68819
0
20000
40000
Local Authority Housing Built
Social Housing Voluntary Dwellings
60000
80000
100000
Local Authority Housing Acquired
Total Dwellings
13
Health
•
Health Expenditure – Ireland spends 7.5% of GDP on Health;
– the EU average is 8.7% of GDP– France spends 10.4%, Denmark 8.9%, Norway 10.1%
•
Health expenditure is roughly at the 1987 levels despite a) the increase in
population, b) an ageing population and c) unprecedented national wealth
•
Increased Privatisation of Health Care and building For-Profit hospitals and
nursing homes increases the risk of poor health and death for those who cannot pay
for health care
Social Class and Income divided health system – the poor are simply more likely to
die than the better off
– People with no formal educational qualifications are 50% less likely to have
excellent or very good health compared with those who have had third level
education.
– Only 40% of people on very low incomes (€7,000 in 2003) had very good health
compared with 82% of those who had 4+ times this income
•
Source: Institute of Public Health Study (2003) Inequality in Perceived Health: A Report on the AllIreland Social Capital and Health Survey: (page 19)
14
Education
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
WE LACK NATIONAL DATA on all the main EQUALITY GROUNDS AND
SOCIAL CLASS in relation to Educational Attainment and Progress (E.
McGorman and C. Sugrue, 2007)
Denial of inequality by failing to fund research on levels of inequality in
health, education, housing, transport
Children of higher professionals are more than 3.5 times as likely to get 4+ grade Cs
on Higher Level Leaving Certificate papers than the children of the unemployed, and
2.0 times more likely to get these grades than the children of lower grade non-manual
workers
Just 60% of boys and 61% of girls of households where the parents are unemployed
do the leaving certificate compared with almost 90% of employer/manager and
professional groups
Source: School Leavers’ Survey, 2004; Table 2.5c, Gorby,S., McCoy, S. and Watson, D. ESRI
(2005)
Ireland spends only a little over half the amount of GDP on Education (4.4%) that Denmark
spends (8.4%); Lower than the amount spent in poorer EU states Lithuania (5.9%); Latvia (5.8%)
Parents subsidise education and where parents cannot pay, children suffer
Censorship does not always come in the banning of books or films: it comes
in funding cuts to dissenting voices and to forms of research that will
document injustices and inequalities
15
A neo-liberal model of citizenship is
undermining social solidarity in Ireland
• The Market is now the primary producer of cultural logic and cultural
value in Ireland
• Citizen is defined as an economic maximiser: a ‘consumer’, a
‘client’, a ‘free chooser’ –
• The roles of the caring citizen, the social and political citizen, the
cultural citizen are being marginalised
• Neo-liberalism offers a Hobbesian perspective on citizenship - a
Care-Less view of being a citizen – primacy granted to self interest
– Net consequence is a privatisation of interest and a lack of
solidarity between peoples and generations
– The glorification of self interest is reflected in the demonisation of
the principles of redistribution via equitable taxation
– But the development of our society and maintenance of political
stability is dependent on OTHER-CENTREDNESS – on solidarity
16
What Kind of Ireland do we want?
It is possible to have one in which Equality of Economic,
Political, Cultural and Affective conditions apply
– Economic Equality goal= equality of resources – there can be no
substantive equality of opportunity without equality of economic conditions
- urgent need to redistribute wealth more equally
– Socio-cultural Equality goal=equality of respect and
recognition- for the interests and needs of different status groups –
Cultural Minorities, Travellers, Disabled people, Older people Migrant
workers, Women and Men, Lone parents, Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual people
– founded on a critical inter-culturalism
– Political Equality goal=equality of power in public and private
institutions- Sharing power in designing, planning and implementing
programmes- the politics of presence
– Affective Equality goal:=equality in the doing of Care Work and equal
access to caring and loving – recognising our interdependencies and
necessary dependencies
– The latter includes respect and funding for solidarity
work (the social economy of society)
17
Rational Economic Actor (REA) Model of the Citizen- citizen valued for performance
Competing Rational Economic Actors
O = Self interested, Calculating, Competing Economic Actors.
X = Competition Between Actors.
18
Care-Full Model of the Citizen
Tertiary Care Relations:
– Relations of Solidarity
Solidarity work
Secondary Care Relations
– generalised care work
Primary Care
Relations
– love labour
19
Groups vary in how they are affected by different forms
of inequality
Equality: From Theory to Action (2004) J. Baker, K. Lynch, S. Cantillon and J.Walsh
Dimensions of
Equality
Primary Generative Groups Most
causes of
Directly Affected
inequality
All of the causes of
inequalities
interact for all
groups
Resources
(How economic
resources are
distributed)
•Lack of sufficient
resources to
participate with
others on equal
terms in society
•All low income
groups : Welfare
Dependent persons
including children
•Asylum seekers on
€19.50 per week
•Low waged
workers, insecure
employment without
pensions etc.
e.g. for low income
working class people –
inequality is generated
in economic relations
but finds expression in
socio-cultural relations
(moral disapproval of
working class lifestyles,
values)
Low paid migrant
workers – low pay and
low status/poor housing
Respect and
Recognition
Those who are
denied respect
because of a
particular identity
e.g. colour of skin
•Cultural, Ethnic and
Linguistic minorities
•Lesbians/ Gays
•Disabled people
•Migrant workers
•Deep-rooted antiBlack racism makes
accessing employment
difficult – lack of
respect impacts on
economic rights and 20
this impacts of political
(How cultural, ability,
sexual and other
differences are
managed)
How different groups are affected by different forms of
inequality
Dimensions of
Equality
Cause of
inequality
Groups most directly
affected
Interaction of
inequalities
Love, Care
and Solidarity
(LCS)
•Inequality in
the doing of
care and love
work
•Inequality in
access to care
•Lack of
respect for
solidarity work
•Women and other Primary
carers (e.g.lone parent carers)
• Migrants without families or
friends
•Disabled and older people
who are isolated due to lack of
accessible and affordable
transport
•Primary carers
cannot access
secure
employment–
poverty in old age
•Disabled people
cannot meet partner
•No funding for
community work
Lack of power
to influence
decisions that
affect people
directly
•Children, and All Groups that
are not party to decisions that
directly affect
them/Migrants/Refugees/
•Lack of access to
power is a problem
for all marginalised
groups
•Need a politics of
21
presence
(level of
recognition for
relational work –
building and
sustaining LCS)
Power
Relations
(how power is
exercised; who
is involved in
decision-making)