Ireland's risk society

Sinn Féin has abandoned its left-wing alternative to capitalist, market-driven forces in favour of a centrist drive for acceptability.

Capitalism's success makes the world a riskier place, according to German academic, Ulrick Beck. Ireland's well-documented rise to the top of the world's capitalist pile brings with it associated risks.

Beck, who introduced the English-speaking world to his concept of Risikogesellschaft ("risk society"), argues that economic and environmental events, growing global inequalities and insecure forms of work are all contributing to a world where nation states can't control what goes on inside them. Producing wealth produces risks.

This is certainly true when applied to Ireland. Ireland's increased risks include the transitory nature of work for many people; poor housing; low incomes; poor health care and status. Alongside these risks are other transnational risks, such as terrorism, infectious diseases (BSE, bird flu, HIV), or natural disasters, such as tsunamis and hurricanes. Technological and economic progress has been overshadowed by risks, according to Beck.

As the Sinn Féin faithful gather in the RDS at the weekend for their ard-fheis, a self-proclaimed radical party will pass up another opportunity for a mandate to address these risks.

Gone are the days when Sinn Féin was the political wing of a terrorist organisation. Gone are the days of censorship and silencing. Gone too are the days when Sinn Féin stood for alternative economic and social policies that are not to be found elsewhere in Irish democratic politics. But so too has passed the time when a left-wing alternative to capitalist, market-driven forces was propagated by republican socialists in the Sinn Féin party. And yet the need to address the risks faced by Irish people remains; the need for a fairer, more equitable society endures.

Ireland's level of inequality persists despite – or perhaps because of – exceptional levels of economic growth. And regardless of the declared non-acceptance of poverty by Charlie McCreevy and of inequality by Michael McDowell, levels of poverty and inequality persist. The risks increase while tangible responses to them do not.

In the most recent analysis on income and living conditions, carried out by the ESRI, almost one-fifth of the population were at risk of poverty in 2004. Women, people living in lone parent households and those living alone are at a higher risk of poverty than the rest of the population. In 2001, more than 862,000 people (almost 22 per cent of the population) lived on less than €164 per person per week. Meanwhile, relative income poverty levels (the measure of income inequality) increased from 15.6 per cent in 1994 to 22 per cent in 2001. Similar levels of poverty and inequality are found in Northern Ireland.

New research, just published by the ESRI in the 2004 Annual School Leavers Survey, finds that those who leave school early and those who do not go on to study are twice as likely to be unemployed than their counterparts would have been five years ago. Unemployment rates are highest amongst the least qualified school leavers: 68 per cent of those with no educational qualifications are unemployed, while 29 per cent of those who have a Junior Certificate and between 11 and 16 per cent of those who have a Leaving Certificate remain unemployed. Those most likely to be unemployed when leaving school are those whose fathers are unemployed.

This research highlights a worrying trend of increased unemployment among less qualified young people, and reasserts trends found in previous surveys on the direct links between educational disadvantage and unemployment. It also highlights the risks that remain alongside continued economic growth. These are risks that remain largely unaddressed in this society.

Fergus McCabe, a long-term community activist and campaigner in the North Inner city and the sole community representative on the National Drugs Strategy Team, resigned last year. McCabe has a long career of fighting against the injustices and inequalities that are experienced by deprived communities and has spent most of the past 15 years driving the drugs strategy, locally and nationally.

He resigned because of the distinct lack of progress on implementing the 2001-2008 drugs strategy and his belief that the focus of political attention had drifted away from tackling drug-related issues. Illegal drug-use affects most acutely those communities with high levels of poverty and disadvantage. McCabe specifically cites the inadequate and under-funded response to the regional drugs task forces; the "fiasco" of a response to cocaine and crack and the absence of a political will to drive the drug strategy.

Sinn Féin's 2005 pre-budget submission outlines some of these issues, but most of its historical calls for social republicanism have been replaced with centrist struggles for democratic representation and acceptability. There are no hard calls for higher taxes and no robust policies aimed at reducing inequality or addressing the social and economic risks faced by the people they claim to represent.

And while Sinn Féin remains quiet on these issues, a thunderous silence booms from the other parties.

Sara Burke