17th October 2003 – The September 2003 edition of JUST.NOW (newsletter of Vincentian Partnership for Justice) looks at the reality of poverty and its impact on the key areas of life in our society. For the good news and the bad news read on…Poverty the reality…..
Good News… and bad news (from an Irish perspective)
1. Ireland is now the 4th richest country in the world.
… but Ireland ranks top of the list of E.U. countries with the biggest gap between richest and poorest.
2. The number of children living in consistent poverty dropped from 15% in 1994 to 6% in 2002
…but 90,000 children live in consistent poverty and 5,000 more will be born into such poverty by the end of 2003.
3. Ireland is one of a number of countries with a National Anti-Poverty Strategy which sets out targets for reducing educational disadvantage, income adequacy, rural poverty etc.
… but Ireland has the 2nd highest level of child poverty in Europe at 28% Child dependent allowance has not been increased since 1996.
For more such perespectives visit
http://vincentians.ie/UN_Day_On_Poverty.htm
Tags: Poverty Analysis
