Claims by the Government that it had invested the necessary resources in social inclusion did not stand up to scrutiny, the Labour Party said yesterday.
The party's social, community and family affairs spokesman, Mr Tommy Broughan, said that poverty and disadvantage still blighted the lives of thousands of families throughout Ireland.
"The fact that the gap between rich and poor has increased during the five most prosperous years in the history of the State is a damning indictment of the FF/PD government," he said.
Labour has put forward a 12-point plan to tackle poverty and disadvantage, covering education, homelessness, low earners, pensioners and those in receipt of welfare payments. "Poverty is not just an urban issue. Many communities in rural Ireland suffer severe disadvantage," Mr Broughan said.
In January this year the EU had released a report which showed that Ireland's spending on social protection was the lowest of all 15 EU member-states. In 1997, when the previous government left office, 17.2 per cent of Ireland's GDP was allocated to social protection. "Most recent figures released by the EU demonstrate that this had declined to 14.7 per cent by 1999. The EU average is 27.6 per cent. To put it in context, for every €1 million this Government spent on social protection in 1999, the Danes spent €2 million and the French spent €2.1 million."
Cllr Eric Byrne said that only effective redistribution of res-ources would close the gap bet-ween rich and poor. "We know that taxation is the most efficient engine of redistribution. The conservative parties live in a never-never land where top-quality services go hand in hand with low taxes."
As the Celtic Tiger uttered its last faint whimpers, the incoming government would have to make choices. "And, if the gap between rich and poor is to be closed, those choices will have to be very different from the ones made by FF and the PDs. Labour is prepared to make the right choices, nationally and locally," he added.