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Policy Issues Home

A wide range of material on many policy issues is available on this page.  This includes both material and commentary from Social Justice Ireland and material from other sources.  The policy issues are listed alphabetically in the menu on this page.

Agriculture and the environment on the island of Ireland

9th November 2020

Social Justice Ireland was delighted to contribute to The Journal of Cross Border Studies in Ireland: Volune 15 2020 on the theme “Convergences and Divergences: Agriculture and the environment on the island of Ireland'.   

Help to Buy little help to lower income households

6th November 2020

Budget 2021 saw a regrettable extension of the Help to Buy Scheme. Here, Social Justice Ireland takes a look at the numbers and why this Scheme is regressive.

Commission on Pensions should examine universal pension

4th November 2020

The establishment of the Commission on Pensions is welcome, but rather than being restricted to examining the future of the State Pension Age, the Commission should also look into expanding eligibility of the State Social Welfare Pension, and examine the fairness of pension-related tax breaks.

ODA increase warmly welcomed

2nd November 2020

Budget 2021 allocated €867m to Ireland’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme; an increase of approximately €30m on the amount pledged in Budget 2020. In these difficult and uncertain times, such a move is warmly welcomed. Time now for Government to publish a pathway towards our UN-agreed target.

The Census Population from an Environment Perspective 2011 and 2016

30th October 2020

Yesterday (29th October 2020) the CSO published the latest report on The Census Population from an Environment Perspective 2011 and 2016. As the name might suggest, this Report delved into the Census data for 2011 and 2016, to analyse the trends around housing energy use. The results are interesting and highlight a willingness of households to move to more sustaiable home heating. For low income households however, they also underpin the need to have more focused action on retrofitting older homes and increasing energy efficiency.

More than 637,000 people are still living in poverty in Ireland despite modest improvements in poverty rates

27th October 2020

More than 637,000 people are still living in poverty in Ireland, of which over 193,600 are children, despite modest improvements in poverty rates.  Social Justice Ireland responds to release of CSO SILC 2019.  

Hard Brexit Threat for Low Income Households

26th October 2020

Although the potential for a hard-Brexit has been overshadowed by the challenges of Coivd-19 during recent months, the potential for sudden and significant changes in economic activity and living standards from January 1st 2021 remains a major threat.

Budget 2021 contained many missed opportunities

23rd October 2020

Budget 2021 was the first chance for this Government to show how seriously it is taking its commitment to the creation of a new social contract. Click here to see some of the opportunies regrettably missed.

Budget 2021 Continues to Privatise Public Housing

21st October 2020

Despite a significant allocation of over €3 billion to Housing in Budget 2021, the same old policies provide little public housing.

Budget 2021, Carbon Tax and Just Transition

19th October 2020


Social Justice Ireland welcomes progress in Budget 2021on carbon tax, and the commitment to ringfence this revenue for sustainability measures.  However we are still a considerable distance from a Just Transtion and the compensation meausures in Budget 2021 are not as comprehensive as they could have been.  

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