This document discusses the impact of austerity measures in Ireland and rising inequality. It notes that despite some progress, poverty and income inequality have increased since 2008. Long-term unemployment has had huge social and psychological impacts. Women have been disproportionately affected by austerity, bearing the brunt of cuts to public services and shouldering most of the unpaid care work. Many state agencies focused on equality and social justice have had their budgets cut or been closed down entirely since the late 2000s.

24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd-61UV_TLk

25. http://vimeo.com/111658271

27. AUSTERITY

46. ‘…no matter which
measurement of
poverty is used,
Ireland lies in the
worst third of the
EU 27 for its
performance in
tackling poverty and
for income
inequality.” p.95

47. …despite some progress since the 1990s, there is now a clear rise
in consistent poverty over 2008-9… The data for relative income
inequality show that the increasing equality often celebrated is
illusory; rather, income inequality is deeply embedded and the
Celtic Tiger did little to shift it.” p.98.

48. “Since the 1980s… the bottom decile’s share increased by a mere 0.11 per
cent, while that of the top decile increased by a very significant 1.34 per
cent. [Social Justice Ireland] conclude that ‘the gap between the top 10 per
cent of households and all the rest of society has widened over these years.”
p.99

49. “…while the crisis has hit all classes, Ó Riain (2009) observes a disastrous
collapse in working-class employment. There are growing differences
between the position of those with third-level education and those without.”
p.101

50. “Those for whom the principal economic status of the head of the
household is home duties (primarily female carers and lone parents),
unemployed and low paid workers, comprise almost three quarters of
poor households…
The Celtic Tiger period saw a significant redistribution of income from
workers to businesses… in the 2001-06 period it fell to 56.4 per cent of
GDP, from 78 per cent in the 1960-70 period.” p.102.

51. “…Unemployment leaves people stressful and unhappy… loss of self-esteem,
fatalism and loss of control over daily life.
[There are] huge implications of long-term unemployment, with people
working through a cycle of loss similar to bereavement (disbelief, anger,
depression, acceptance) eventually adjusting to a life cycle of
unemployment.” p.104
[Women] are the real losers [since 2008], bearing the brunt of cuts in public
services, on which they are more reliant.
“Women do 86 per cent of child supervision, 69 per cent of playing with and
reading to children, 82 per cent of care to adults, 80 per cent of cooking, 86
per cent of cleaning and 70 per cent of shopping.” p.105
Poverty compounds this inequality of care.

53. Closing down of Dissent - Attacks on Equality in Ireland
Equality Bodies – closed down or with reduced Budgets
 Combat Poverty Agency –closed 2008 incorporated into the Department of Social Protection
 Equality Authority – 2009 43% cut and now being merged with the Human Rights Commission
 Women’s Health Council – closed 2009
 Crisis Pregnancy Agency – closed and merged with the Health Service Executive
 Irish Human Rights Commission -Budget cuts since 2009 and merged with Equality Authority
 Equality for Women Measure - co-funded by EU Operational Programme ---budget partly transferred out of
this area and now under Dept. For Enterprise, Trade and Employment
 National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) _Closed 2009
 Gender Equality desk at the Department (Ministry) of Justice, Equality and Law Reform – Desk Closed 2009
 Gender Equality Unit – Department of Education – Closed early 2000s
 Higher Education Equality Unit – UCC -Closed and merged into Higher Education Authority (early 2000s)
 National Women’s Council of Ireland -158 member organisations- budget cuts of 15% in 2008-11 and 38% in
2012
 Traveller Education cutbacks 2011 and 2012 – all 42 Visiting teaches for Travellers removed*
 Rape Crisis Network Ireland – core Health Authority Funding removed 2011
 SAFE Ireland network of Women’s’ Refuges - core Health Authority Funding removed 2011
 People With Disabilities in Ireland's (PWDI) - funding removed 2012
 National Carers’ Strategy – abandoned 2009
Kathleen Lynch, Equality Studies UCD
School of Social Justice 53

54. Social Reproduction
Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as
fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of
things.
Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical
Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

55. Social Reproduction
Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as
fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of
things.
Moreover, the social organization of that work, the set of social
relationships through which people act to get it done, has varied
widely and that variation has been central to the organization of
gender relations and gender inequality.
Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical
Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

56. Social Reproduction
Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as
fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of
things.
Moreover, the social organization of that work, the set of social
relationships through which people act to get it done, has varied
widely and that variation has been central to the organization of
gender relations and gender inequality.
From this point of view, societal reproduction includes not only the
organization of production but the organization of social
reproduction, and the perpetuation of gender as well as class
relations.
Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical
Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

57. Gender and Caring
Notes on Lynch and Lyons, ‘The Gendered Order of Caring’ in
Ursula Barry (ed) Where Are We Now? New Feminist Perspectives
on Women in Contemporary Ireland (Dublin: Tasc, 2008)

58. There are deep gender inequalities in the doing of care and
emotional work that operate to the advantage of men.
It is women’s unwaged labour and related domestic labour that
frees men up to exercise control in the public sphere of politics,
the economy and culture.
… there is a moral imperative on women to do care work that
does not apply equally to men ; a highly gendered moral code
impels women to do the greater part of primary caring, with most
believing they have no choice in the matter.

59. The Irish government collects data
on unpaid caring within households
in
1. the Census
2. the Quarterly Household
Survey (QNHS).
Within the Census, care is defined
as being given by ‘persons aged
15yrs and over who provide regular
unpaid help for a friend or family
member with a long-term illness,
health problem or disability
(including problems due to age).
P.167-8

60. The way care is defined in the Census excludes what constitutes a
major category of care work, that of the ordinary, everyday care
of children (unless the child has a recognised disability). Data on
the care of children is compiled in the QNHS, however, and is
also available through the European Community Household Panel
(ECPH) survey. The focus in all three is on the hours of work
involved in caring so we do not know the nature and scope of the
caring involved. P.168

61. According to the [2006]
Census there are less than
150,000 people, 5 per cent
of the adult population in
unpaid care work (mostly
with adults) of whom 61
per cent are women and 39
per cent are men.
However, when we
measure all types of caring
activity, as has been done in
the European Community
household Panel (ECPH)
we see that there are 1
million people who do
caring who are not named
in the census.

62. Even though it is no doubt
unintentional, the failure to
collect data on hours spent
on child care work in the
Census, means that child
care, which is the major
form of care work in Irish
society, is no counted in
terms of work hours.
… women are almost five
times as likely to work long
care hours than is the case
for men.
Women spend much more
time at care work than men,
even when they are
employed.

71. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/exhibition-
documents-40-year-fight-for-contraception-and-abortion-
1.1995341