Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and my colleagues for their comments. I nearly thought twice about coming into this Chamber to talk about poverty. Thankfully, I always have Senator Flynn. She urges Senator Clonan on in the same way to remember who we are, why we are here, and that we are advocates, first and foremost, before anything else. I am starting to be worn out by coming in because I feel that, even if I stayed here for 50 years, I would be having the same conversations and the same contributions back, which would be about this and that being put in place and a once-off payment being given. Nobody is saying that investing in those ways is negative, but unfortunately they are not the solution to end poverty. They are just maintaining people, not ending poverty. That is why we need to be much more ambitious. Unfortunately, when I listen to Senator Dolan talking about her experience and how poverty is at the centre of her mind when she talks about a small farm, it is like, we need a smack of reality here. Poverty cannot be looked at from a perspective of when people have safety. If you listen to Senator Flynn and to communities, they are not voiceless; they are just purposely not heard. There is actually no such thing as a voiceless community. Everyone has a voice. The problem is they are purposely not in the conversation.

I was thinking of a quote, which I have here, on that idea of progress. I know poverty does not look like it did for my dad's generation. The Minister of State talks about progress as if it combats poverty. There is a book called The Melancholia of Classby Cynthia Cruz. When people compare things to how they were, the whole world is developing and moving on. That is just progress. It is not the actual narrowing of any gaps. Before the budget, people were poor, and after the budget, people are poor. They may have a momentary influx of income that week, but poverty continues to exist through budget after budget, Government after Government, formation after formation, and coalition after coalition. The poverty is constant. It just looks different in different decades, and that is what we need to understand. We wear different clothes, we dress in clothes from Penneys, we present ourselves, and we are not going around with holes in our knees. We have to understand that poverty looks different. We need to challenge the concept of poverty and power. The quote from Cynthia Cruz, and it really rings true for me today in the contributions, is:

The worship of progress is nothing new, of course, and is, in its ideology, inherently anti-working-class. Progress is a middle-class ideology, an ideology of the status quo. Their idea of progress is superficial and anti-revolutionary. Instead of overthrowing the political system, middle-class liberals want to make cosmetic, and not systematic, changes to the system – without interrupting or engaging with structures of oppression.

That is what it comes down to.

We can speak about the tangible things we can point at, like houses and welfare. Community development projects have been silenced or privatised. It is not the same anymore. There are many issues with the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP. We can point to all of those things, but unfortunately, there is something else invisible happening that nobody seems to be able to get a grasp on, and that is the fact that poverty is about class and power. Until we can face up to that and begin to grapple with it, we will not alleviate poverty. I do not think people should take offence at that. Unfortunately, I find that politicians take more offence at being asked to do better at ending poverty than people who are living in extreme poverty take offence at living in poverty. There is something wrong with that. People in poverty are living in dire situations, yet they seem to be able to engage in the conversation in a much more reasonable way than are people who are being challenged to end poverty. They always become defensive. Why is everyone getting defensive? People need to remove the personal from the idea and look at how we end poverty and not be afraid of criticism. Do not be afraid. Welcome it. Take it as a challenge. That is what the Combat Poverty Agency can do with full independence. People should welcome that because we should all want a society where poverty is not a thing. Our jobs as politicians are only done if that is achieved. The problem is we are not doing our job as politicians.