18/04/2006 8:17:31 am
Why I Want Reforms Like in Ireland:

"Mass unemployment is no more, Irish unemployment is 4.5%, the European average is 9.2%. The growth in employment is even more impressive when you factor in returned emigrants and immigrants. Not only are more Irish people at work than ever before but social mobility has increased dramatically. According to a recent report Social Mobility and Meritocracy; Reflections on the Irish Experience in term of ?absolute mobility the general pattern was of increased opportunity for upward mobility.?

According to the Census figures since 1996 the middle class in Ireland has grown by 25% while the poorest class has shrunk by almost 30%. In Ireland, average incomes surged by 101.3% between 1995 and 2004 and that of the poorest 10% by 78.6%, according to an analysis of Euromonitor figures.

Nor has lower taxes proved a barrier to increased social spending. Since 1982 real public spending has grown 200% in the euro zone, but almost double that amount ? 450% ? in Ireland. Nor are we all that unequal. According to The Social Situation in Europe on average the richest 20% in European Countries earn 4.4 times the income of the poorest 20%, in Ireland they earn 4.5% marginally above the European average but more equal than Italy, Spain Portugal and the UK."

Seamus Mulconry, Policy Director of the Progressive Democrats