50 reasons not to vote for Fianna Fail or the PD's.

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday May 13, 2002 22:19 by Pauli Dublin 7

(or Fine Gael or The Labour Party for that matter)

PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THIS INTO YOUR EMAIL AND FORWARD IT TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK AND ANYONE ELSE YOU CAN THINK OF. FEEL PUT YOUR OWN HEADLINE ON THE ARTICLE TO SUIT YOURSELF. This is a piece which appeared in The Sunday Tribune this weekend. It was compiled by Diarmuid Doyle. The reason I'm posting the article in full is that as far as I know the Tribune does not publish on the internet. (point number 35 in the list does not appear in the original article.) There are many more points that could be added, If you have any by all means add them in.

Irish Gross Domestic Product rose from €41.9bn in 1994 to €86bn in 2000. Gross Domestic Product rose from 60% of the European average in 1989 to 114% in 1999, making Ireland the third richest member state after Luxembourg and Denmark. (Department of Finance)

1. Irish people have the worst life expectancy in the European Union. (Health Inequalities and Poverty, a report from the St. Vincent de Paul Society)

2. Irish men die a year earlier than the EU average; Irish women die more than two years earlier. (Health Inequalities and Poverty)

3. Proportionately, more people live in poverty in Ireland than in any other industrialised country outside the United States. (United Nations 2001 World Development Report)

4. Irish workers are the lowest paid in all -bar two- of the 15 EU nations. (Rights and Justice Work in Ireland, a 2002 report by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust)

5. Average pay in Ireland is 28% below the European average, while Irish workers have the second longest working hours in the EU. (Rights and Justice Work in Ireland)

6. The average industrial worker is now spending more than 20% of his or her wages on childcare costs. (Irish Congress of Trade Unions)

7. Over the last five years, budgetary decisions have meant that the gap between rich and poor has widened by €242 per week. (An agenda for Fairness, the 2002 socio-economic review by the conference of Religious in Ireland, CORI)

8. The death rate in the lowest socio-economic grouping is more than 340% higher than for those in the higher socio-economic group. (Inequalities in Mortality, 1989 to 1998, a report presented to the Departments of Health in Dublin and Belfast by the Institute for Public Health)

9. The number of people living on below half the average income rose from 17.4% of the population in 1994 to 20% in 1998. (2001 Report from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI)

10. In 1996, there were 27,427 households on the Local Housing Authority list. The estimate for last year was 58,789. This figure represents a growth in those looking for local authority accommodation of 114%. (Threshold)

11. The proportion of elderly people living below the poverty line rose from 10% in 1994 to 30% in 1998. (ESRI)

12. The Irish state pension has the lowest value in the EU. (ESRI)

13. Social spending in Ireland is the lowest in the EU at 16% of GDP. The EU average is 27%. (Rights and Justice Work in Ireland)

14. Ireland has the second most uneven distribution of income in the EU, after Portugal. (Rights and Justice in Ireland Work in Ireland)

15. 30% of households headed by unemployed, disabled, or ill people are in constant poverty. (ESRI)

16. 20% of Irish students from lower working-class backgrounds participate in third level education compared to 80% from upper middle-class backgrounds. (Combat Poverty Agency)

17. The rate of access to higher education ranges from 4.8% in inner-city Dublin (specifically Dublin 1) to 56% in some middle class suburbs (specifically Dublin 14). (Rights and Justice Work in Ireland)

18. Ireland has the lowest number of acute hospital beds per capita in the EU. (Health Inequalities and Poverty)

19. Ireland has the highest rate of premature death caused by coronary heart disease in the EU. (Health Inequalities and Poverty)

20. Ireland has a five year waiting list for children in need of orthodontic care. (Health Inequalities and Poverty)

21. Ireland has the highest rate of child poverty in the EU. (Combat Poverty Agency)

22. Ireland has 4 times more golf courses than children’s playgrounds. (Frank Martin, lecturer in children’s law)

23. The family of a 12 year old Tipperary child waiting over five years for a hospital appointment had to avail of a charity auction to raise money for private treatment. (Irish Times, 4 July, 2001)

24. Infant mortality in Ireland is the 4th highest in the EU, at 5.5 per 1000 births. (Rights and Justice Work in Ireland)

25. Irish health spending is 4.5% of GDP, 30% below the European average. Greece, Lithuania, Slovenia and Poland all allocate greater proportions of GDP to health. (2001 United Nations Development Report)

26. More than 60 patients per day are having to wait on trolleys for up to 6 hours in the casualty departments of Dublin’s acute hospitals. (Eastern Regional Health Authority)

27. When Bertie Ahern visited Nenagh hospital last September, patients being accommodated on trolleys in corridors were moved out of sight. When he left, they were returned to the corridors. (Contemporaneous media sources)

28. The number of homeless people in Ireland has officially doubled since 1996 and now stands at 5,234. However, voluntary organisations argue the real total is higher. (Rights and Justice Work in Ireland)

29. Homelessness in Cork doubled between 1999 and 2001. (Cork Simon Community)

30. 45% of homeless people in Dublin are mentally ill. (Homelessness and Mental Health Action)

31. Irish spending on education as a proportion of GDP is 4.5% compared to an EU average of 5.1%. This makes us 20th out of 29 developed countries. (Rights and Justice Work in Ireland)

32. Ireland has one of the worst pupil/teacher ratios at primary level in 30 nations that make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD. (Education at a glance, OECD report)

33. Ireland has the second lowest rate of adult literacy in the industrialised world. 23% of Irish people cannot perform basic literacy tasks like reading a bus timetable. (2001 report from the United Nations development programme)

34. 14% of Irish homes for older people lack either a bathroom/shower, indoor flush toilet or hot water. (Rights and Justice Work in Ireland)

35. As a percentage of GDP Ireland is one of the smallest contributors of aid in the EU. (OECD)

36. Of the €5bn budget surplus generated from 1997 to 1999, 90% went into income tax cuts, 10% into benefits. (CORI)

37. About 20% of the population lives in relative poverty. (CORI)

38. The number of prisoners has increased by 23% over the past 5 years, the second highest in the EU. The average European increase was 5%. (Rights and Justice Work in Ireland)

39. Between September 2000 and March 2001, prisoners were placed in padded cells on 270 occasions and deprived of proper sanitary facilities, possessions of any kind, company and natural light. (The Irish Penal Reform Trust)

40. 76% of people put in padded cells in Irish prisons are mentally ill. (The Irish Penal Reform Trust)

41. Ireland is one of the most corrupt states in Europe and as corrupt or more corrupt than Singapore, Chile, and Hong Kong. (Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index)

42. Ireland is more corrupt now than it was in 1998. (Transparency International)

43. Ireland has 219 doctors per 100,000 of the population, compared to 312 in Portugal, 413 in Norway, 350 in Germany and 395 in Belgium. Ireland has the second lowest number of doctors per 100,000 in the EU. (United Nations Development Index 2001)

44. A single person living on the dole is expected to live on €118.82 per week. (Department of Finance)

45. Dublin motorists move at an average speed of 6 miles per hour in the morning rush hour. (Dublin Corporation Director of Traffic, Owen Keegan)

46. Journey time into Dublin city at morning peak hours has increased by 38% since 1994. (Owen Keegan)

47. Passengers on Irish buses are travelling at two-thirds the speed of their counterparts in Europe and America. (Report for Bus Eireann from Simpson Xavier Consulting)

48. Dublin has a higher murder rate than London. (British Home Office)

49. Breast cancer amongst Irish women is 20% higher than those in other developed countries. (Society of Irish Actuaries)

50. Hundreds of Irish women have had their breasts removed unnecessarily due to lack of facilities in the public health services. (Report by the Department of Community Health and General Practice at Trinity College, Dublin)