The Government's treatment of poor and excluded sections of Irish society is "fundamentally unjust" and its claimed commitment to social justice "not credible", a leading religious organisation said today.
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The Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) said the gap between the poor and the rest of society had "widened dramatically" as result of Government policy.
CORI cites the recent £200 per week pay rise given to ministers and cuts to the higher rate of tax as evidence that the "government's approach to the poorest and most excluded in Irish society is not acceptable".
Father Sean Healy, of CORI's justice commission, said: "This government has distributed the fruits of economic growth to its own ministers and to others who are better off in society while, simultaneously, leaving the poorest even further behind.
"While the government has argued trenchantly that it is committed to social justice, their track record where the poorest in society are concerned speaks far louder than all the progressive rhetoric with which they seek to cloud the core issues.
"The poorest people in Irish society have been left far behind as the gap between them and the rest of society has widened dramatically as a direct result of government policy."
Fr Healy said the social welfare bill, currently going through parliament, will increase social welfare rates for the poorest by £8 a week, contrasted with the average 20 per cent pay rise for ministers, Dáil deputies and senators announced in January.
"Treating the poorest in this way is fundamentally unjust," he said.
CORI has 12,000 members of the clergy in 1,400 communities in Ireland.