Governments in the Republic of Ireland seem to want to scale to the bottom performers in the EU rather than the top performers when it comes to the quality of life of its citizens. Whereas before the collapse of communism, the Republic of Ireland was one of the poorest places in Western Europe, we seem now to be busy letting former Eastern bloc countries overtake us too. Take the Bertelsmann Foundation report published in September 2014. According to its social justice index, the Republic of Ireland has now not only been overtaken by Estonia, Czech Republic and Slovenia, top flyers from the former Eastern bloc, but also Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia. Report is here: bertelsmann-stiftung.de/cps/rde/xbcr/SID-BEDC1982-D0149343/bst_engl/xcms_bst_dms_40363_40364_2.PDF Social Justice in this report is measured by six different indices; poverty prevention (where Ireland scores especially abysmally), equitable education, labour market inclusion, social cohesion and non-discrimination, health and inter-generational justice. The Republic of Ireland needs to get its act together. I suggest we start by investing more in our young children, infants and toddlers so that they get off to a good start in life with peaceful, responsive parenting and no abuse. The Republic of Ireland can make a good start by banning corporal punishment in the home. 40 states have already banned this. We should join as the 41st. There is no time to lose. Also, we should levy a childrens tax on the population to pay for free parenting classes and free psychotherapy classes for everyone so that the inter-generational cycle of abuse can be broken, so that the children of abusive parents dont turn into abusive parents themselves. Lets invest for the future. It is no surprise that the Republic of Ireland scores poorly in the inter-generational justice score too.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 12:55:25 +0000
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