Social Justice Matters

To mark International Women's Day, Susanne Rogers chats to Louise Lennon, Policy and Communications Officer with Irish Rural Link  and Tara Farrell, CEO of Longford Women's Link  about issues of concern to women in rural Ireland. 

Find out more about Irish Rural Link HERE and Longford Women's Link HERE.

 

 

In today's episode, Colette Bennett chats with Dr. Cathal McCrory, Associate Professor (Psychology) of Life Course Development and Ageing in the Department of Medical Gerontology. He also leads the Behavioural and Social Sciences group within TILDA. His research explores the pathways, processes and mechanisms through which socially mediated risk factors come to influence health over the life-course, with a particular emphasis on stress. 

 

This episode looks at the impact of childhood adversity on life expectancy and is one that all policymakers should be listening to.

On Friday, 18th February 2022, Social Justice Ireland published Measuring Progress: The Sustainable Progress Index 2022 which ranks 14 comparable EU countries based on their delivery of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Written by Prof. Charles M.A. Clark of St John’s University, NY; Dr. Catherine Kavanagh of UCC; and Colette Bennett of Social Justice Ireland, the index compares 15 EU countries across all UN SDGs, assesses their performance on each individual SDG; creates a ranking table for performance overall; and provides national and local-level policy proposals to improve Ireland's progress towards the Goals.

Here, we listen back to Prof. Clarke as he considers measurements of Wellbeing.

Play is a serious business! A Playful City is Ireland’s first not-for-profit focused on creating more playful, engaging and inclusive cities with and for communities. Creative Director, Aaron Copeland joins Susanne Rogers to chat about play and involving children in creating safe spaces for them in cities. 

In this week's episode Colette Bennett chats with Simon Murtagh, Senior Research and Policy Officer with Oxfam Ireland about Oxfam's latest report, Inequality Kills: The unparalleled action needed to combat unprecedented inequality in the wake of Covid-19 and their proposals for a more equal world.

For those of you who may be interested in wealth taxes and how they might work, check out the website Simon mentions in this episode - www.wealthandpolicy.com - for a range of useful resources.

The Simon Communities of Ireland publish "Locked out of the Market" quarterly. It is a snapshot study undertaken over three consecutive days which tracks the number of properties advertised to rent within the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government (DHPLG) Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) limits.

The latest edition published on January 30th 2022 and Wayne Stanley, Head of Policy and Communication joins Susanne Rogers to discuss their findings and subsequent policy recommendations.  

We are all aware of changes that need to be made to reduce our emissions and live more sustainably.  One such change, according to many advocating in this space, is the introduction of a four-day week. In this episode, Colette Bennett chats to Caroline Whyte of Feasta and Ciarán Nugent of NERI on what exactly it is and what it means for environmental, labour-market, and social sustainability.

On Monday, 10th January 2022, Social Justice Ireland published our policy briefing 'Housing and Poverty 2022'. This briefing, which can be accessed on our website  HERE analyses the impact of housing costs – mortgage interest and rent – on the poverty rates of various household types.

 

In this latest episode of our SJI 10 Minute Lessons Series, we take a look at the post-housing costs poverty rate of various household types as well as our proposals for what needs to be done.

On Monday, 10th January 2022, Social Justice Ireland published our policy briefing 'Housing and Poverty 2022'. This briefing, which can be accessed on our website  HERE analyses the impact of housing costs – mortgage interest and rent – on the poverty rates of various household types.

 

In this latest episode of our SJI 10 Minute Lessons Series, we take a look at poverty,  how it's calculated and what it looks like and the impact of rent payments on the poverty rate of people receiving housing subsidies.

 

Michelle Murphy is Research and Policy Analyst with Social Justice Ireland.

In her paper for the Social Justice Ireland's 34th Annual Social Policy Conference on the European Pillar of Social Rights, Michelle speaks about the challenging employment, training and poverty and social exclusion trends in social rights and the need for rights to sufficient income and meaningful work. 

All the Papers and Videos from the Conference can be accessed HERE and Santina Bertulessi's Policy Conference paper can be listened to HERE.