2014-04-22 - Socio Economic Review 2014 - Full text and cover - FINAL

is becoming ever more urgent for Ireland in the context of achieving recovery. Such
an approach would go a long way towards addressing the growing inequality Ireland
has been experiencing. Social, economic and cultural rights should be
acknowledged and recognised, just as civil and political rights have been. We believe
seven basic rights that are of fundamental concern to people who are socially
excluded and/or living in poverty should be acknowledged and recognised. These
are the rights to sufficient income to live life with dignity: meaningful work;
appropriate accommodation; relevant education; essential healthcare; cultural
respect; and real participation in society. To be vindicated, these rights will require
greater public expenditure and provision of services.
c) Democratic Deliberation
Decisions taken by government must be openly debated both inside and outside the
Oireachtas. Since 2008, austerity measures have been implemented in a haphazard
manner, with little public debate and often a lack of explanation and justification
for the measures by Government. Instead of reasoned debate with citizen and civil
society participation, decisions have been taken at an elite level. For example,
Government has provided a high-level forum called the IFSC Clearing House Group
for the financial industry, and 23 changes in the Finance Act 2012 were made to
accommodate this group (McGee, 2012). We have already examined the lack of
democratic accountability and legitimacy in many of the actions taken during the
crisis.
Social Justice Ireland believes that a new social model for Ireland must be founded on
the idea of deliberative democracy, in which decisions about what kind of society
and economy Ireland needs are founded upon reasoned and enlightened debate,
and in which decisions taken by government are justified and accessible to the
general public. 11 A deliberative decision making process is one where all stakeholders
are involved, but the power differentials are removed (Healy and Reynolds, 2011).
In such a process stakeholders are involved in the framing, implementing and
evaluating of policies and measures that impact on them. Each citizen should have
a role and voice in how our society is governed. This should not be confined to fiveyearly
general elections, particularly when election debates do not provide
substantive discussions on our country’s future. The proposed Public Participation
Networks to be introduced in Local Authorities as part of the reform of local
government will provide an opportunity for real engagement between local people
and the local authorities across the country (for further information on this cf.
chapter 10).
11
See Gutmann & Thompson (2004) and Healy and Reynolds (2011) for more on the
concept of deliberative democracy.
46 Socio-Economic Review 2014