SOCIAL POLICY PROVISIONS IN IRELAND

Social Policy Provisions for People with Disabilities in Ireland

Social Policy Provisions for People with disabilities in Ireland

Economic development plays a crucial role in the development of social policy in any country as the progress of social policy and advancements in social welfare are mostly dependent on government funding, “the emergence of the state as a provider and regulator of welfare has given it a central role in shaping the mixed economy of welfare (Fanning, 2006)” . Social welfare is as vital in Ireland as any other country as it “assists both in ensuring the continuation, stability and efficient working of the economic system and in ensuring the integration of social classes and groups and the maintenance of order (Mel cousins, 1995)”. During the last 30 years the Irish economy has seen many ups and downs, for example the recessions of the 70s and 80s to the “period of economic expansion over the last decade, often referred to as the Celtic Tiger (Fanning, 2006)”, then arriving at the modern day recession. However even though social welfare is dependent on government funding and intertwined with the economy it is not true to say that when the economy sees good/bad times that social welfare is affected accordingly. Also as economic spending is prioritised by the government, even if the funding is available, certain aspects of social welfare may not be top priority in the view of the government.

If you want a fast snapshot of how Ireland, with its record prosperity, delicacies persons with disabilities, you need look no further than the financial and communal study Institute. But be alerted, the image its statistics paint is not a heartening one - rather the opposite.

address this: 54 percent of households going by a person with an illness or a disability are at risk of scarcity. That's compared with an general nationwide mean of just under 20 per hundred dwelling at risk of poverty - itself quite a alarming number granted that the economic boom is now in its second decade.

The simple detail is that persons with disabilities are the lone assembly at highest risk of poverty in this country - and the even more extraordinary fact is that the numbers are getting poorer instead of better.

Back in 1994 - just at the issue when the finances started to advance - the percentage of people at risk of scarcity dwelling in families going by a person with an sickness or a disability was 29.5 percent. That's just under one-in-three. Today, as we've glimpsed, over a ten years later, it's more than five-out-of-ten.

And there's more. In 1994, 10.4 per hundred of those receiving communal welfare payments for illness or disability were dwelling at risk of poverty. That's one-in-ten. Today the equivalent number is 49.4 percent. Again that's about five-out-of-ten.

It's one of those occasions when statistics convey the big image into focus - and show an undeniable case for change.

Targeted Policies

"There's no question about it, those figures make a very strong case for aimed at ...