THE gap between rich and poor is continuing to grow despite social welfare improvements, the Society of St Vincent De Paul said. The talks on a new national programme offered the opportunity to discuss ways of dealing with this issue.
Educational disadvantage, income maintenance and urban poverty were areas in need of attention, the SVP said. On education it said more resources should be put into the pre school and primary school sectors.
Personal allowances should be increased and the standard rate of income tax reduced to help the low paid. Any programme should also ensure that social welfare rates were increased to the levels recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare in 1986.
There should also be a clearer framework that gave a social partnership role to the voluntary sector. Voluntary organisations such as SVP, which relied almost exclusively on voluntary unpaid workers, faced increasingly complex problems. They needed more state support for training initiatives if interventions were to be effective.