Social Justice Matters

39. SJI Ten Minute Lessons Ep8: Deprivation in Ireland

This week, the CSO released the Deprivation statistics for Ireland for 2019.

This Ten Minute Lesson examines the key numbers and trends for that release, and explains what deprivation is, how it’s measured, and what can be done about it.

38. SJI Interviews Ep21: Catherine Cox of Family Carers Ireland

Family Carers Ireland (FCI) is the national charity that supports over 350,000 family carers across the country - people who care for loved ones with physical or intellectual disabilities, care for older people, the terminally ill, or those suffering from chronic illnesses.

In this episode of Social Justice Matters, Catherine Cox of FCI tells us about how her organisation and the people it represents has been affected by the current pandemic, and their priorities for Budget 2021.

37. SJI Seminars Ep9: Paddy Cosgrave - learning from the past to shape the future

Paddy Cosgrave is the founder and CEO of Web Summit. In this week's episode of Social Justice Matters, we go back to our Social Policy Conference of 2018, and Paddy's presentation, 'Learning from the past to shape the future'.

 

If there's one positive from Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown, it was the fact that so many people have been willing to re-consider how we have structured our society, particularly the way it has been built around the needs of capital. This presentation is a timely reminder of how we can learn from the past to create a new and better future.

36. SJI Interviews Ep20: Welfare Conditionality and Stigma with Joe Whelan, UCC

"Spongers", "Scroungers", "Welfare Cheats" - just some of the many tropes used to belittle people dependant on social welfare supports.  But the idea of these supports being free and easy money just doesn't ring true.  

In the latest episode of our SJI Interviews series, Colette Bennett chats with Joe Whelan, Lecturer in Applied Social Sciences in UCC and author of the paper "We have our dignity, yeah? Scrutiny under suspicion: Experiences of welfare conditionality in the Irish social protection system", among others, on the experiences of people in receipt of social welfare.  This is an eye-opening conversation, and gives another layer of understanding beyond the statistics to the lived experience of people dependent on welfare payments.

35. SJI Interviews Ep19: Covid-19 and Education, the International Experience

This week our guest is Edward Shuttleworth. Ed is CEO of See Beyond Borders, which works in Cambodia to provide quality education to Cambodian children.

We wanted to get an international perspective on how Covid-19 is affecting lives and, as you'll hear, organisations engaged in this kind of development work are experiencing considerable barriers as a result of the pandemic.

The Cambodian experience is a reminder that as bad as we have it in Ireland, Covid-19 is going to have extremely negative affects on hundreds of millions of people in less developed countries. It’s also a reminder of the importance of the development aid provided by countries like Ireland to less developed countries like Cambodia, and how much of a difference it makes in people’s lives. Policymakers should remember this when considering their approach to Budget 2021 and particularly the international aid allocation and funding for Irish Aid.

34. SJI Interviews Ep18: World Population Day - Irish Demographics with James Hegarty, CSO

Saturday, 11th July 2020 is World Population Day. In the latest episode of our podcast, Colette Bennett, Research and Policy Analyst with Social Justice Ireland chats with James Hegarty, Statistician with the Central Statistics Office, about demographics in Ireland - past, present, and future - and looks at what policies will be needed to meet the challenges of success.

33. SJI Interviews Ep17: The Hidden Cost of Poverty with Dr. Tricia Keilthy and Dr. Micheál Collins

The public service cost of not addressing the causes of poverty is estimated at between €3 billion and €7.2 billion per year.  This report, the Hidden Cost of Poverty, Estimating the Public Service Cost of Poverty in Ireland, highlights what is behind these numbers.  In looking behind those headline numbers, the report delves into the costs associated with reduced health outcomes for people in poverty; educational disadvantage; housing supports; welfare supports; supports for children and families; and the cost to the justice system and emergency services.  It's well worth checking out.

In this episode of our SJI Interviews series, Colette Bennett is joined by Dr. Tricia Keilthy, Head of Social Justice with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul who commissioned the report, and Dr. Micheál Collins, Assistant Professor of Social Policy at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, in UCD who conducted the research and wrote the report. 

32. SJI Interviews Ep16: A Minimum Essential Standard of Living, with Robert Thornton, VPSJ

In the latest episode of our SJI Interviews series, Colette Bennett chats with Robert Thornton, Senior Research and Policy Officer with the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice on their work, the Minimum Essential Standard of Living, the Living Wage and what the next Government could do to provide for a decent standard of living for all.

31. SJI Interviews Ep15: The European Social Model, with Michelle Murphy, SJI

Over ten years on from the financial crash, and after six years of economic growth, before the onset of Covid-19, across the European Union there were 16.8 million people unemployed, 6.65 million people long-term unemployed, and 86 million people living in poverty of whom 19 million were children.  This presents significant challenges as Europe grapples with the social and economic consequences of the current crisis.

The findings of 'A Rising Tide Failing to Lift All Boats' - the latest publication in Social Justice Ireland's European Research Series regarding child poverty, young people not engaged in employment, education or training and in work poverty are particularly concerning.  These issues must be resolved as an integral part of any investment and recovery package.

In this episode Colette Bennett chats with Michelle Murphy, Research and Policy Analyst with Social Justice Ireland to discuss the findings of this Report and the key recommendations that policy makers could take from it.

30. SJI Interviews Ep14: Inequality in Ireland, with Robert Sweeney, TASC

Dr. Robert Sweeney is an economist with TASC, the think tank for action on social change.

In our latest interview, Robert, provides us with some insights into inequality in Ireland, as revealed in TASC's recent report The State We're In, Inequality in Ireland in 2020.