THERE has been no real connection between sizeable economic growth and social progress in Ireland since 1977, a new index due to be unveiled today will show. It will be presented to the Conference of Religious in Ireland's (CORI) annual social policy conference in Dublin.
The Social Progress Index (SPI) has been compiled from 15 variables, ranging from infant mortality and child abuse, through teenage suicide, drug use and school drop out rates, to poverty, unemployment, real hourly wages, net migration, homicides, traffic accidents, social housing needs and medical card coverage.
It has been developed for Ireland by Dr Charles Clark, Professor of Economies at St John's University, New York, and Ms Catherine Kavanagh, lecturer in economics at UCC.
Taken together, the performance of the SPI's 15 indicators "serves as an index of the social, health of the nation, and the SPI monitors social health over time, giving a comprehensive view of the quality of life of the citizens", said Father Sean Healy of CORI's Justice Commission yesterday.
It shows that while Irelands' Gross National Product grew by an average of 2.94 per cent per year between 1977 and 1994, and Gross Domestic Product rose by 3.35 per cent year, the Social Progress Index increased by only 0.048 per cent per year.
During the 17 year period for which the SPI was calculated, GNP grew by more than 68 per cent and GNP by more than 80 per cent, while the Social Progress Index grew by less than one per cent.
As a result of this evaluation, the CORI Justice Commission has asked the Government to "fundamentally re-order its priorities to ensure that current significant economic growth will lead to social progress in the years immediately ahead".
Of the individual indicators, infant mortality, the school dropout rate and real hourly wages have improved since 1977. Those worsening were teenage suicide, unemployment, drug usage, child abuse and social housing needs. Other variables have gone up and down during the period.
"Two relationships between GDP or GNP and the Social Progress Index are evident from the figures in Charles Clark and Catherine Kavanagh's study," said Father Healy yesterday.
"First, the SPI is lower than GDP in every year since 1977. When this is expressed in graph form, what is clear from the curves is the diverging relationship between economic growth, as measured by GDP/GNP, and the social well being of the nation as measured by the SFI.
"Both GDP and GNP have grown fairly consistently since 1977. Over the full time period, the trend in SPI has been one of stagnant growth. The SPI average, annual growth rate of 0.048 per cent compares to GDP average growth rate of 3.35 per cent and GNP growth of 2.94 per cent. Thus, the gap between GDP or GNP and the Social Progress Index has continued to widen throughout the period."
This widening gap "supports the idea that GDP or GNP alone do not reflect all the necessary information about the condition of the nation," Father Healy went on. "It is clearly unsafe to conclude that improvements in economic growth are necessarily accompanied by similar improvements in the social health of the nation."
Full details of the Social Progress Index will be released and discussed at today's conference at Milltown Park in Dublin on "Progress, Values and Public Policy". It will be opened by the President, Mrs Robinson, and attended by politicians, representatives of the social partners and the unemployed, academics and civil servants.