National Social Monitor - Putting Fairness First: Delivering the Programme for Government
The Programme for Government (PfG)- Securing Our Future, published in January 2025, outlines a series of commitments made by Government across a range of policy areas. Social Justice Ireland welcomed the PfG and believes that it contains several policies and proposals that, if resourced and implemented, would represent a significant step to creating a fairer and more just Ireland. These policies would make a positive difference to society, to our wellbeing and to our communities. However, the programme also contains several causes for concern with a lack of real ambition around poverty and income adequacy and a lack of policy coherence in other areas.
The focus now is on delivering the commitments made in the PfG, while highlighting the impact that these commitments have on the real challenges facing Ireland today, such as poverty, climate change, housing and health. Government must ensure that the common good and protection of the most vulnerable in our society is at the heart of the design, implementation and delivery of policy over the next five years as it delivers on PfG commitments. Government must grasp the opportunity to harness our economic success, success which is the result of investment in human capital, social infrastructure, our communities and our natural capital, to deliver transformative change for all.
Despite ongoing global uncertainty, Ireland is in a privileged position with strong GDP and employment figures, while the exchequer has seen unprecedented levels of corporate windfall revenue in recent years. The potential risk of external shocks to the economy has implications for our corporate tax-take in the longer term. This requires planning for a sustainable tax-take and wise investment of available funds into infrastructure and services to embed resilience.
The purpose of economic development is to drive and support our social and environmental goals. Ireland’s economy should be one which works for all, now and into the future. Over the next five years Government should strive to create a new economic model based on fairness. This would ensure that the benefits accruing from a vibrant economy would be distributed in a more equal manner. Among other things, this would mean that people with a job have sufficient income to live life with dignity, that social welfare payments are set at an adequate level and are indexed to average earnings, and that public services are funded sufficiently in order to close the gap between the living standards of the least well off in society and what is considered to be a minimum socially acceptable standard of living in a developed Western country.
This edition of Social Justice Ireland’s National Social Monitor does not attempt to cover all the commitments made in the PfG. It is offered as a contribution to the ongoing public debate.