New figures, published on Wednesday, offer a sobering insight into the socioeconomic impacts of Austerity Ireland.
The CSO’s research analyzed Irish citizens’ income and living conditions throughout the course of 2013. It found the rate of enforced deprivation in Ireland had more than doubled between 2008 and 2013.
“Enforced deprivation” is a form of poverty characterized by a lack of two or more basics required for a comfortable standard of living. Such benchmarks relate to the ability to afford adequate food, heating and clothing.
Recent European Commission data indicates the Irish face much higher levels of poverty and deprivation than other comparable EU states.
Left-leaning political economy expert Michael Taft warns Irish society “is riddled with high levels of poverty and deprivation.”
He says over 1.3 million Irish citizens living in deprivation - 37 percent of which are children - is a “social and moral indictment of the priorities of a government that privileges tax cuts over poverty-reduction.”
Since Ireland’s 2008 economic crash, the proportion of people in consistent poverty has soared by 100%, according to Irish think tank Social Justice Ireland.
And of almost 1.4 million people living without life’s basic essentials, over 440,000 are children and more than 90,000 are pensioners, the group warns.
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A frayed social fabric
The CSO’s report found deprivation rates in Ireland soared from 13.7 per cent in 2008 to 30.5 percent in 2013.
Meanwhile,Irish citizens’ average income after tax plunged to €17,374 (£13,300) in 2013 - a decrease of roughly 2 percent on 2012.
Taft said 53 percent of Irish citizens who are unfit to work due to illness or disability lack basic requirements deemed essential to a reasonable standard of living. He described the situation as a"social obscenity."
The political economist added private and social housing tenants in Ireland are suffering serious financial stress.
"Over 40 percent of private rented tenants and over 56 percent of social housing tenants live in deprivation," he said.
"With poverty rampant, with over 1.3 million living in deprivation, the Government is playing its tax-cutting fiddle while society burns."
On Tuesday, during a visit to Ireland, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said the Irish populace were “heros.”
Her assessment related to Ireland’s supposed economic recovery, following a gruelling 4-year TROIKA bailout.
The IMF-EU structural readjustment program shredded Ireland’s social fabric and sparked the highest levels of emigration the state has seen since its Great Famine (1845-1852).