Madam, - Bishop John Kirby of Clonfert (September 17th), in defence of Father Sean Healy of the Conference of the Religious in Ireland, states emphatically, and in unison with Sean Healy, that there has been an "increased level of poverty [in the Republic of Ireland\] resulting from present policies." One can only hope that voters will not be taken in by such misinformation when next they are mandated to elect a government.
In effect, what Father Healy is saying is that due to the exponential increase in take-home pay of workers over the past seven years of this government, those citizens who are on comparatively low incomes, whether waged or on social welfare, are "at risk" of becoming relatively poorer compared with their relatively prosperous working brethren.
The fact that absolute poverty has all but been abolished as a result of the "present policies" of the past two governments, is persistently and conveniently omitted when the politics of poverty are discussed by those of a social(ist) disposition.
No one cavils with Father Healy's wish that the "elderly, sick, disabled and carers" should benefit from additional State income. What Father Healy and his supporters want, however, is a portmanteau of increased taxation on businesses and middle/upper income groups, in order disproportionately to increase social welfare on a broad-spectrum basis. - Yours, etc.,
EOIN McMAHON, Northumberland Road, Dublin 4.