By virtue of strong economic growth, high levels of income and widespread educational attainment, Ireland is ranked fourth among the world's states for human development in a major United Nations report published yesterday. But the same document places Ireland 17th out of 18 OECD states for rates of poverty. The explanation for this paradox is to be found in the way income equality is affected by high economic growth. But the Government loudly disputes the methodology used to measure levels of equality and poverty.
This argument should not obscure the good fortune which places this State among the world's best endowed, according to the Human Development Report 2006. It is the most authoritative comparative study of its kind, taking into account life expectancy, educational attainment and literacy as well as income levels. Thus, the richest states are not necessarily the most developed ones however closely related the two phenomena are. Much depends on how fairly the fruits of economic development are distributed. Ireland has jumped from eighth place in the list last year, having been 17th in 2000.
This year's report concentrates on world water resources, showing how they are under threat because of inequality, poverty and power rather than scarcity. Ireland is also comparatively highly endowed in this respect, even if there is no room for complacency about our water management policies.
The Government insists that the measurements of human poverty in the report are distorted because the statistics used for adult literacy are 10 years old. Since then much progress has been made and more money is beingspent in the area. It is surprising that these figures are not more up to date, since they are supplied to the UN by public bodies which have an interest in putting the best face forward for what is by now a very well established international benchmark of performance. Adult literacy remains a real problem, despite the greater efforts made to combat it.
A more serious issue concerns the measurement of povverty and inequality in Ireland. Last year's Human Development report included a methodological note acknowledging that countries going through rapid periods of growth can see widening inequalities yet undoubted improvements in overall incomes and social well-being. For this reason the Government prefers to measure poverty against a consistent guideline of basic goods and services. On this basis "consistent poverty" has fallen from 8.8 per cent in 2003 to 6.8 per cent in 2004, the base for this year's UN study.
Relative poverty should certainly take account of such baselines, as most Irish researchers agree. But this does not dispose of the problem. Poverty is relative as well as absolute. In a society where inequalities of wealth and income are increasing, such gaps are resented and affect the life chances of those with least income and resources. This is an abiding political issue.