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FOUR TESTS FOR BUDGET 2025

GOVERNMENT’S FINAL BUDGET MUST LEAVE POSITIVE LEGACY ON POVERTY

On the eve of Budget 2025, the Community Platform, a network of 31 national community and voluntary organisations, has published its annual Four Tests for Budget 2025. The Platform calls on the Government to leave a positive legacy on addressing poverty, social exclusion and inequality, and to deliver sustainable changes to build a stronger, fairer, and more resilient society, in which everyone can live with dignity.

The Community Platform, a network of 31 national organisations working to address poverty, social exclusion and inequality, has published Four Tests which it will use to assess Budget 2025. The Four Tests are:

Test 1: Will Budget 2025 redistribute income towards the poorest 20%?
Test 2: Will Budget 2025 strengthen access to quality employment?
Test 3: Will Budget 2025 restore and strengthen public services that are of particular importance to people on low income?
Test 4: Will the impact of Budget 2025 be assessed to ensure that all provisions reduce poverty and inequality?

The Community Platform’s Four Tests for Budget 2025 draws on its members’ submissions to Budget 2025 to outline detailed measures and proposals the Government should implement in order to achieve each of these Four Tests.

Tim Hanley, speaking on behalf of the Community Platform, said: “Budget 2025 will be the last budget of the current Government, and its final chance to leave a positive legacy for people experiencing poverty, social exclusion and inequality. Despite suggestions that the worst of the cost-of-living crisis is behind us, many people continue to see no real improvements, and they risk falling even further behind. Poverty rates remain disproportionately high across all measures for many of the most marginalised groups, who were already in poverty and struggling to make ends meet before the cost-of-living crisis.”

Mr Hanley continued: “The Government must use Budget 2025 to deliver sustainable changes that contribute to building a stronger, fairer, and more equal society, in which everyone can live with dignity. Now is the time to take substantive and meaningful steps towards addressing the long-term inequalities in our society, the eradication of poverty, the provision of universal, accessible and affordable public services and decent jobs, and the creation of inclusive, resilient, sustainable and empowered communities.”

Read the Four Tests for Budget 2025

Submission to UN CESCR Fourth Review of Ireland

The lived experience of poverty, social exclusion and inequality must inform the Government’s approach to economic, social and cultural rights, an alliance of leading organisations in the Irish community and voluntary sector said today (08.02.2024), as it launched its Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN CESCR) Fourth Periodic Review of Ireland.

The Submission draws on the collective expertise of 31 national organisations, representing a wide range of groups experiencing poverty, social exclusion and inequality, to provide a vital alternative perspective ahead UN CESCR’s examination of Ireland next week. It provides key insights into what must change in order to improve the lives of people whose economic, social and cultural rights are not respected, protected and fulfilled as they should be in Ireland.

The Community Platform draws the Committee’s attention to the lack of effective engagement with affected communities, and the organisations that represent them, in the design and implementation of policy, the need for greater Government accountability for its decision-making, and the critical role of and gaps in data and evidence in informing effective policy.

“This Submission offers an important counterpoint to what the Government will present in Geneva. We provide the Committee with our assessment of how Ireland is faring when it comes to our international obligations, and make concrete, evidence-based recommendations for tackling some of the immense challenges we face as a society. Our work with people and groups experiencing poverty, social exclusion and inequality gives a unique insight that must inform the Government’s approach to these issues,” said Paul Ginnell, Director of the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland.

“We highlight the failure of successive Governments to properly address such major long-term challenges as poverty, health, education, employment and housing, which has resulted in deepening inequalities and hardship for many people, particularly those living on low incomes and from the most marginalised communities. We make concrete recommendations on structural issues hampering attempts to tackle poverty and social exclusion, including weaknesses in engagement and consultation with those affected and the organisations that represent them, failures in implementation of national policies and strategies, and the absence of accountability in Government decision making regarding policy and decision-making,” said Ann Irwin, National Co-ordinator with Community Work Ireland.

“The Community Platform believes that unless the Government improves and strengthens the ways it currently engages with civil society and affected communities, it will continue to fail to find workable and effective solutions to existing and new challenges. We propose a new approach for how the Irish State can engage with the community sector and work jointly to devise and implement new solutions to difficult challenges, and make recommendations for new, innovative and more collaborative approaches that are dynamic and fit for purpose, maximise involvement and harness the expertise of organisations and communities,” said Bríd O’Brien, Head of Policy and Media at the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU).

The full Community Platform Submission is available here.

This project has received funding from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Grants Scheme as part of the Commission’s statutory power to provide grants to promote human rights and equality under the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

Press Statement – Budget 2024

On the eve of Budget 2024 a network of 31 national community and voluntary organisations has called on the Government to urgently address the cumulative impact of the very high cost of living on people, while also addressing ongoing structural weaknesses that create the conditions that enable inequality and poverty to become ingrained and grow in our society.

The Community Platform, a network of 31 national organisations working to address poverty, social exclusion and inequality, has published Four Tests which it will use to assess Budget 2024.

Press Statement – Budget 2023

In advance of Budget 2023 a network of 32 national community and voluntary organisations has called on the Government to urgently respond to the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on those on the lowest income who are the worse effected, but to also tackle the ongoing issues that have enabled inequality and poverty to become ingrained and grow in our society.

The Community Platform, a network of 32 national organisations working to address poverty, social exclusion and inequality, has published Four Tests which it will use to assess Budget 2023.