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

c) New Indicators
Creating a sustainable Ireland requires the adoption of new indicators to measure
progress. GDP alone as a measure of progress is unsatisfactory, as it only describes
the monetary value of gross output, income and expenditure in an economy. The
Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social
Progress, led by Nobel prize winning economists Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz
and established by President Sarkozy, argued that new indicators measuring
environmental, financial sustainability, well-being, and happiness are required.
The National Economic and Social Council (2009) has published the Well-Being
Matters report, which suggested that measures of well-being could be constructed
that capture data on six domains of people’s lives that contribute to well-being
including: economic resources; work and participation; relationships and care;
community and environment; health; and democracy and values. We believe that
a new social model should deploy such indicators alongside national accounting
measures. The OECD Global Project on Measuring the Progress of Society has
recommended a use of such indicators to inform evidence-based policies (Marrone,
2009: 23). They would serve as an alternate benchmark for success.
2.4 Conclusion
So, having set out our understanding of the economic crisis and the context within
which it developed, reflected on the responses to the crisis and its human and
economic cost, set out a policy framework for a new Ireland and provided some
details of the policy initiatives required under each of its five pillars we now move
on to look in much greater detail at key aspects of these five pillars.
We provide a fuller analysis of both the first pillar, macroeconomic stability, and
the second pillar, a just taxation system, in chapter 4 where we also set out a more
detailed set of policy proposals.
We address the third pillar, social protection, in chapters 3 – on income
distribution; 4 – taxation; 5 - work, unemployment and job creation; 6 - public
services; 7 - housing and accommodation; 8 – healthcare; and 9 - education and
educational disadvantage). On each of these we provide an analysis and critique of
the present situation, set out a vision for a fairer future and make a detailed set of
policy proposals aimed at moving in that direction.
The fourth pillar, governance is addressed in chapter 10, where we again provide
analysis and critique together with concrete policy proposals.
The fifth pillar, sustainability, is addressed in chapters 11 – sustainability; 12 - rural
development; and 13 - the global south following the same approach.
48 Socio-Economic Review 2014