Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Equal Status (Amendment) Bill, which I will support. One of the distinguishing features of recent budgets has been their impact in increasing the levels of inequality in our society. This has been highlighted by Social Justice Ireland, TASC, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Government's own think-tank, the ESRI. Today in our society, the top 10% of the population based on income has nearly 14 times the disposable income of the lowest 10%. In 1980, the top 10% had eight times more disposable income. Thus, even in the so-called boom years in the economy, and given that the Government indicates that we are still at the income levels of 2003 or 2004, income inequality has grown. It should be the aim of every government to protect the weakest in society and it is clear that this Government is not interested in achieving equality.

We should be long past the rhetoric that a rising tide will lift all boats and that if our economy improves, incomes will improve with it.

Even if we did not need a reminder, the publication of the so-called Anglo tapes over the past week has shown us all in a stark way how a well-paid coterie of bankers, who were more than likely in the top 30% of income earners, feel about the rest of society. We cannot expect people like that to bring equality to society. The only way that citizens can expect to have equality recognised is through the actions of a Government that places the equality of citizens at the centre of all decision making.

We are now in the budgetary process for 2014 and an integral part of that process should be an impact assessment of all the proposed measures and decisions made based on the lowest impact on equality. Then and only then can citizens be certain that their Government will be working to protect their interests and not the vested interests of the top 10% of income earners.

Income inequality is not the only area where equality should be measured. Equality should be measured across all Government and public policy actions as outlined in the Bill. This is the only way that equality for citizens can be achieved. We have only to look at some recent decisions taken by this Government, particularly in respect of the ending of the mobility allowance and the motorised transport grant, to highlight the inequality directly shown by public bodies. The decision was justified on the basis that public transport could pick up the slack, but even a five minute conversation with any recipient of the mobility allowance from a rural area would immediately have shown that this could not have been the case because there is no public transport in rural areas. The announcement of the continuation of the mobility allowance for another number of months shows clearly that this decision by the Government was wrong. If it had been equality proofed prior to being made, it would not have been made.

Last year, I raised directly with the Tánaiste the unequal treatment of rural patients where they were being denied specialist medical treatment in Dublin hospitals because they did not live in the catchment area of these hospitals, even though these treatments were only available in Dublin. That shows the inequality inherent in our system when citizens should have equal access to all services across the State. An equality proofing of these types of decisions would clearly highlight the inequality in them and force the authorities to look at different options and provide different policy options that do not impact negatively on citizens.

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