We are currently living through two global emergencies. Covid-19, an acute onset crisis, and the climate and biodiversity emergency, which is chronic. Both of these are urgent and require an immediate response.
Keith Adams, JCFJ Social Policy Advocate, has sent a policy briefing document to Minister Charlie Flanagan and the Department of Justice and Equality (DJE) which puts forward three proposals for how the prison population can be reduced to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice strongly believes… Read more »
Our current market-focused political culture came to power after the oil crises of the 1970s. In normal circumstances, it would be highly unlikely that any electorate would vote for a system that systematically weakened social welfare, deregulated markets, and reorganised resources so that rich people were more likely to get richer. But the architects… Read more »
Ireland has been awarded €12 million by the EU for the LIFE-IP PAF Wild Atlantic Nature project that will focus on the protection and restoration of its blanket bogs in the western and northern parts of the country. While this news suggests the prospect of healthy, better-functioning bogs, what does it actually mean for these… Read more »
One can only imagine that Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, breathed a sigh of relief. In the midst of a difficult General Election campaign, his Department was able to publish homelessness figures for December, which for the first time in a year, saw a reduction.
Housing has remained firmly on the agenda throughout the General Election 2020 campaign. Previously, the JCFJ proposed three questions about housing which could be used in conversations with canvassers, to see what each party’s housing policy is, beyond slogans. To close this loop, answers about housing policy were also taken from their current manifestos.
It isn’t that this election has failed to become one about the climate emergency. In many ways, it is worse than that. It is one where our main political parties have failed to understand how to address the growth in social injustice and the interconnectivity of the issues creating the climate and biodiversity crisis.
Despite 2019’s “green wave”, just a small percentage of the electorate says the environment is their top priority when choosing who to vote for in next month’s general election. To see it as disconnected from the other electoral issues is an error, says Kevin Hargaden.
It has been difficult to remain unmoved by the many images of homelessness and poverty which have confronted us in the past weeks and months. A young boy kneels to eat a warm meal provided by a soup kitchen. Using a piece of cardboard, probably provided by a parent, he is trying to prevent the… Read more »
Working Notes is a journal published by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice. The journal focuses on social, economic and theological analysis of Irish society. It has been produced since 1987.
