Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 118: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if his Department has information on levels of social mobility here, compared to other countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17139/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Analysis of the levels of social mobility in Ireland has been undertaken in recent years most notably by the Economic and Social Research Institute. In a 2004 paper, entitled "Economic Change, Social Mobility and Meritocracy: Reflections on the Irish Experience", the ESRI outlines the scale of change in the Irish class structure for men aged between 20 and 65 years. Over the period from 1973 to 2000, this has seen the professional and managerial class rise from 12.9% of population to 23.3% of population; the routine non-manual class rise from 8.3% to 14.1%; the self-employed class rise from 8.2% to 9.9%; the skilled manual class rise from 19.4% to 25.3%; the farming class fall from 20% to 8.2%; the semi-skilled and unskilled class fall from 24.1% to 16.6%; and the agricultural labourer class fall from 7.2% to 2.6%.

The upward shift in the class structure which these figures portray has been responsible for the majority of social mobility in Ireland over recent decades. The number of available higher level positions has had a major effect across the social structure in terms of absolute mobility, understood as the proportion of individuals who have been mobile from their class of origin. However, this has been accompanied by only small changes in the meritocracy of Irish society in terms of access to desirable positions.

This other element, encompassing the idea of meritocracy, to the examination of social mobility is relative mobility or equality of opportunity, which is concerned with the chances people from different backgrounds have of attaining different social positions. Many sociologists have argued that globalisation, as typified in recent Irish economic development, fuels economic inequality and would thereby lead to reduced equality of opportunity. However, the Economic and Social Research Institute and others conclude that, while changes in relative mobility have been slow to manifest themselves, they have been in the direction of increased openness and equality. In other words, the research shows that the Celtic tiger era has increased equality of opportunity in Irish society.

In comparative terms this progress has, according to Breen in his 2004 book "Social Mobility in Europe", brought Ireland from a very low base to rank alongside countries such as Germany, Italy and France but behind Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands, in terms of equality of opportunity. Given that changes in relative mobility happen very slowly our progress in comparative terms is heartening.

It is my hope that, over the medium to long term, targeted initiatives such as the national anti-poverty strategy will bring about further progress in this regard.