Anger as gaping gulf in wealth revealed
? Higher rate of millionaires than US ? 285,000 on less than €190 a week
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THE widening gap between the country's rich and poor was laid bare yesterday as two new reports revealed a stark contrast in lifestyles.
A new report from the Bank of Ireland outlined how we now boast the second highest rate of millionaires in the world.
Around 33,000 people are worth more than €1m - even when the value of their home is excluded. That is a jump of 10pc in the space of just one year.
But another report, from the Irish Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC), shows there has been the first increase in 10 years in the number of children begging.
Official figures show 285,000 people are now surviving on less than €190 a week.
Around 815,000 - almost a quarter of the population - are considered 'at risk' of poverty and live on low incomes.
Last week the Central Statistics Office also revealed that the gap between rich and poor was widening.
But according to the Bank of Ireland report, our wealth has rocketed by 20pc in the space of just one year, with households now holding assets worth €965bn.
Called the 'Wealth of the Nation', it revealed that just 1pc of the population controls one-fifth of the country's wealth.
It claims we are now the second wealthiest country in the world after Japan - ahead of the US, UK, Germany and France. But despite the growing wealth, the Government was last night accused of abandoning the poor as the rich get richer.
When Taoiseach Bertie Ahern launched the National Strategy last February, he claimed the plan underpinned the government's commitment to building a 'fully inclusive society'.
Social welfare groups dismissed the 10-year plan to eradicate poverty as "completely inadequate".
The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) also said the Government failed to address a number of key concerns in its plan.
The group, which consists of dozens of groups, including St Vincent de Paul and the Simon Community, has held a series of meetings this week to study and critique the Government's plan to end poverty.
It found many key targets had been replicated from previous plans, while others had been dropped entirely.
The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) last night said the plan to combat poverty did nothing to close the widening wealth gap.
"There is a gap between the richest and poorest and it's widening," the SVP's John Mark McCafferty said. Labour last night accused the Government of ignoring the most vulnerable section of the population. However, the Government defended its plan, saying it contains a mixture of short, medium and long term targets. A department spokesperson said that, far from lacking ambition, the plan also has a medium term goal to reduce poverty by between 2-4pc by 2012. The spokesperson said it aimed to eliminate what is termed "consistent poverty"by 2016.
- Paul Melia and Breda Heffernan
