Letter to the Irish Times, John O'Neill:

Madam,

Two reports in last Friday’s Irish Times highlight the persistence of class division and inequality in Irish society.

The ESRI / Irish Sports Council Report Fair Play? Sport and Social Disadvantage in Ireland says money being spent on sport is flowing from poorer to wealthier sections of the population.

Data from the 2006 census shows that one in four of the houses built between this and the last census are currently vacant. Many of these houses were built and then bought by speculators benefiting from overgenerous government tax breaks. This at a time when thousands of people and families are languishing on local government housing waiting lists and forced to rely on often substandard accommodation in the private rented sector.

When launching its report on educational disadvantage, Learning to Make Do Won't Do, not so long ago, the President of the St Vincent de Paul Society had this to say: "This report clearly demonstrates that we have educational apartheid in this country. If you live in a disadvantaged area you have major problems to overcome just to get the basic education you need".

The INTO is currently running a campaign entitled Make Class Size an Election Issue. This is a laudable campaign in itself but The Irish Socialist Network will be borrowing from the INTO slogan for the forthcoming election. We are calling on people to vote socialist and Make Class an Election Issue.


Yours sincerely

John O’Neill
Irish Socialist Network
Dublin North-West