Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

The policies of successive Governments have allowed an elite golden circle of the rich and powerful in this country to obtain obscene levels of wealth at a time when the vast majority of people have seen their incomes reduced and have been struggling day in, day out to make ends meet. The message from last week's meeting in Davos and from the Paris School of Economics is that Irish society is becoming more unequal. We are hearing the same message from Oxfam, the Central Statistics Office and the Economic and Social Research Institute. That message is supported by the fact that many of the consultants who recently received substantial payments from Irish Water are the same companies and individuals who were paid for bad advice and bad oversight during the boom. The message is further reinforced by the payment of bonuses, the breach of pay limits for Government advisers and the payment of huge pensions. The list goes on.

In a recent study, the Paris School of Economics showed that the wealthiest 1% of people in Ireland own 10% of national income. Ireland is the seventh worst, in inequality terms, of the 18 countries studied. The figures for accumulated wealth are even more significant and stark. The wealthiest 5% of families in this country own 47% of the wealth. Since this Government came to power, the wealthiest 300 individuals in this country have gained €9 billion, or €30 million each. According to the Central Statistics Office, the incomes of the wealthiest 10% of people in Ireland have increased during the course of the recession, while the incomes of the other 90% of people have decreased. That fall has accelerated as incomes have declined.

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