Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Jobs alone are not going to solve the question of poverty, as the Minister knows well. He knows three quarters of all those living in poverty are outside the jobs market, as this morning's report indicates. They are people with disabilities, pensioners or young people who cannot work. There is no point in saying we have created X number of jobs and are resolving poverty.

I will contrast this with the other end of the scale just to demonstrate the inequality that exists. As Deputy Gino Kenny noted this morning, the top 300 wealthiest people in this country are now worth €84 billion between them and have added €13 billion in recent years. That is an extraordinary amount of increased wealth in the hands of a tiny number of people. Our top 1% of earners have experienced the biggest real income growth of any European Union country so how can that inequality be explained or justified? All the measures indicate that the greater the inequality in any society, the greater the levels of ill health, mental health problems, imprisonment and alienation. Inequality by itself brings by its nature a vast number of problems in society. That is gross and sick inequality.

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