This week our guest is Edward Shuttleworth. Ed is CEO of See Beyond Borders, which works in Cambodia to provide quality education to Cambodian children.

We wanted to get an international perspective on how Covid-19 is affecting lives and, as you'll hear, organisations engaged in this kind of development work are experiencing considerable barriers as a result of the pandemic.

The Cambodian experience is a reminder that as bad as we have it in Ireland, Covid-19 is going to have extremely negative affects on hundreds of millions of people in less developed countries. It’s also a reminder of the importance of the development aid provided by countries like Ireland to less developed countries like Cambodia, and how much of a difference it makes in people’s lives. Policymakers should remember this when considering their approach to Budget 2021 and particularly the international aid allocation and funding for Irish Aid.

Saturday, 11th July 2020 is World Population Day. In the latest episode of our podcast, Colette Bennett, Research and Policy Analyst with Social Justice Ireland chats with James Hegarty, Statistician with the Central Statistics Office, about demographics in Ireland - past, present, and future - and looks at what policies will be needed to meet the challenges of success.

The public service cost of not addressing the causes of poverty is estimated at between €3 billion and €7.2 billion per year.  This report, the Hidden Cost of Poverty, Estimating the Public Service Cost of Poverty in Ireland, highlights what is behind these numbers.  In looking behind those headline numbers, the report delves into the costs associated with reduced health outcomes for people in poverty; educational disadvantage; housing supports; welfare supports; supports for children and families; and the cost to the justice system and emergency services.  It's well worth checking out.

In this episode of our SJI Interviews series, Colette Bennett is joined by Dr. Tricia Keilthy, Head of Social Justice with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul who commissioned the report, and Dr. Micheál Collins, Assistant Professor of Social Policy at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, in UCD who conducted the research and wrote the report. 

In the latest episode of our SJI Interviews series, Colette Bennett chats with Robert Thornton, Senior Research and Policy Officer with the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice on their work, the Minimum Essential Standard of Living, the Living Wage and what the next Government could do to provide for a decent standard of living for all.

Over ten years on from the financial crash, and after six years of economic growth, before the onset of Covid-19, across the European Union there were 16.8 million people unemployed, 6.65 million people long-term unemployed, and 86 million people living in poverty of whom 19 million were children.  This presents significant challenges as Europe grapples with the social and economic consequences of the current crisis.

The findings of 'A Rising Tide Failing to Lift All Boats' - the latest publication in Social Justice Ireland's European Research Series regarding child poverty, young people not engaged in employment, education or training and in work poverty are particularly concerning.  These issues must be resolved as an integral part of any investment and recovery package.

In this episode Colette Bennett chats with Michelle Murphy, Research and Policy Analyst with Social Justice Ireland to discuss the findings of this Report and the key recommendations that policy makers could take from it.

Dr. Robert Sweeney is an economist with TASC, the think tank for action on social change.

In our latest interview, Robert, provides us with some insights into inequality in Ireland, as revealed in TASC's recent report The State We're In, Inequality in Ireland in 2020.

Social Justice Ireland is a key partner in a Masters programme that is run in conjunction with Waterford IT, and delivered in Dublin city. This programme is called the MA in Social Justice and Public Policy.

This special episode of Social Justice Matters should be of great interest to anyone considering enrolling in this MA. The episode is anchored by MA Programme Leader Paul Clogher of WIT, and includes information on the evolution of the programme and the major ideas and themes behind; the student experience of the programme, where you’ll hear from Susanne Rogers and John McGeady who are currently in year 2 of the MA.

More details about this programme are available on our home page, socialjustice.ie, or feel free to ring SJI on 01 290 3597 to speak to one of our staff, all of whom have been involved in delivering parts of the programme at some point

June 3rd is World Day of the Bicycle and our guest for the occasion is Janet Horner, a Green Party Councillor representing North Inner City Dublin and a long-time cycling activist.

Not many of us consider public space to be a political battleground. But issues around who gets to use public space and how, and how we’ve structured the built environment of our towns and cities, are inherently political issues, with significant socio-economic, health, environmental, human rights, and particularly gender dimensions.

As we re-consider the extent to which our society and systems are built around the needs of capital, and not around community living or creating a more caring society, discussions like this are a necessary part of the conversation.

The current Local Property Tax system in Ireland is regressive.  It encourages land hoarding and speculation, while dis-incentivising necessary development, such as building more homes in a housing crisis and retrofitting some of the 230,650 homes with the lowest energy efficiency ratings. 

In the 7th episode in the SJI's Ten Minute Lessons series, Colette Bennett, Research and Policy Analyst, provides an overview of what the Site Value Tax is, how it works and why it is fairer than the current Local Property Tax system.

The purpose of our SJI's Ten Minute Lessons series is to educate and inform listeners on a particular area of policy, giving a brief overview and hitting on the key points that people need to know. They are intended to be short introductory tutorials to often-complex policy areas!

In Episode 12 of our Interview series, Social Justice Ireland’s Economic and Social Analyst Eamon Murphy talks through the findings from Finland’s recent basic income trial, and speaks with Ville-Veikko Pullka of the University of Helsinki.

Finland recently released the results from the world's first statutory, nationwide and randomized basic income trial. It has aroused a lot of interest internationally, with many wondering what the trial would show around questions like how basic income affects people’s participation in the labour market, and what were the effects on things like the wellbeing of recipients. Listen here to find out.