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Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien has given approval in principle for the first Cost Rental Homes in Ireland, allowing tenants to pay rent that only covers the costs of delivering, managing and maintaining the properties.

Under the plan, three Approved Housing Bodies - Clúid, Respond and Tuath - are scheduled to deliver a total of 390 cost rental homes across Dublin, the greater Dublin area and Cork.

An additional 50 cost rental homes are also due to be completed later this year.

Minister O'Brien said in a statement: "These homes will be made available to middle income households with a reduction of at least 25% on open market rental values. It is my firm commitment that we build on this new scheme and expand it further."

However, Sinn Féin's Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said that while any cost rental homes must be welcomed, the less than 400 homes announced by the Minister go nowhere near to tackle the current need.

Mr Ó Broin said the Government's ambition was "far too low" and must be increased urgently to assist thousands of median income renters.

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390 Cost Rental Homes to be provided in Dublin and Cork

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Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien has given approval in principle for the first Cost Rental Homes in Ireland, allowing tenants to pay rent that only covers the costs of delivering, managing and maintaining the properties.

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Housing supply is unlikely to meet demand until at least the end of 2023, according to an analysis of the housing market by the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland.

The Federation concludes that the total number of completions will exceed 19,000 units for the year.

This is significantly higher than estimates produced in the early months of the pandemic when building sites were closed for several weeks to comply with restrictions.

Just over 21,000 units were completed in the whole of 2019, according to the Central Statistics Office figures, an increase of almost a fifth on the 18,000 completions in 2018.

However, according to various estimates from the Central Bank and other economic bodies, around 35,000 new units would need to be constructed per year to keep up with demand.

The BPFI concludes that this figure will not be met until the end of 2023 at the earliest.

It believes that, despite a better-than-expected completion outcome for 2020, there may be pressure on total completions next year.

It bases this on the figure for housing commencements - the process of starting to build housing units - which fell towards the latter part of this year.

The report cites figures for the first eight months of 2020 which show that commencement levels were at 13,314 units, a reduction of almost a quarter on the same period in 2019.

In the months of July and August alone, there were 3,200 commencements - a decline of around 37% year-on-year.

The declines were steepest in Dublin and the surrounding counties.

"There is a close relationship between the number of completions in a year and the number of commencements in the previous year," Dr Ali Uğur, the chief economist of BPFI, explained in his analysis.

"Hence lower than expected commencement numbers in 2020 will put pressure on the number of new dwellings to be completed in 2021 at a time when most observers expected housing supply to catch up with both current and pent-up demand, estimated to be around 35,000 units. It is now likely that housing output will not reach these levels until the end of 2023," he added.

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Housing supply won't meet demand for at least 3 years

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Housing supply is unlikely to meet demand until at least the end of 2023, according to an analysis of the housing market by the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland. The Federation concludes that the total number of completions will exceed 19,000 units for the year.

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The concept of a universal basic income has already been suggested for arts workers hit by the pandemic, but what if there was a constant security and safety net for all, a payment always delivered to all citizens with no strings attached?

The idea was first floated by Thomas More in Utopia in 1516, is now being advocated by Pope Francis and President Michael D Higgins and is being considered by governments across the world. The basic income guarantee is frequently referred to as universal basic income (UBI).

UBI is a periodic payment paid at regular intervals as a cash payment without conditions, allowing those who receive it to decide what to spend it on. It is paid individually without a means test and is unconditional - without a requirement to work or demonstrate a willingness to work.

In Ireland, the Green Party fought for a trial run for UBI to be included in the Programme for Government, and there is to be one at some stage over the next five years.

UBI would be given to each recipient from birth or point of residency, from 'cradle to grave', with the amount given to those under 26 years of age varied depending on wages

Among its most ardent supporters is Green Party Dublin Central TD Neasa Hourigan, co-author of the party's policy. The Green Party proposes a system of UBI in Ireland for all citizens in 2024, pending a successful trial. She envisages that the trial in Ireland will take between 18 and 20 months to plan and that the trial itself would run for two to three years.

"A basic provision of economic resources would address poverty and economic inequality even though it doesn't promise to eradicate either," Hourigan says. She says that in Ireland we already recognise payments like these - child benefit and state pension - but UBI would close the gap between the two.

"I am particularly wedded to UBI because it would have the greatest uplift for people on the margins of existing social welfare bands. The lowest income families should already be within the support network but those in part-time employment often find themselves just outside State help. UBI would address that and be particularly important for women and those who care."

'[UBI is] a big idea but a transformative idea, in the way bringing in an old-age pension would have been seen as radical more than 100 years ago'

The Greens are not alone in supporting UBI. It also has advocates in Fianna Fáil such as Willie O'Dea, while outside government the Social Democrats have also expressed interest. The Department of Social Protection has said that the Low Pay Commission will examine UBI "in due course".

It has been tested elsewhere. The longest trial run for UBI in the world is in Alaska. Since 1982, the state has been giving every woman, man, and child between $1,000 to $2,000 per year. A 2016 study by the University of Alaska found it reduced poverty up to 20 per cent.

In Finland, a two-year UBI study in 2017 and 2018 saw 2,000 unemployed Finns receive the payments of €560, with no obligation to seek a job and no reduction in payment if they accepted one. Participants reported greater feelings of autonomy, financial security, and confidence in the future, although it did not make them any more likely to find work.

"[UBI is] a big idea but a transformative idea, in the way bringing in an old-age pension would have been seen as radical more than 100 years ago," says Bobby Lambert, joint co-ordinator of Basic Income Ireland, a campaign group for UBI in Ireland.

Lambert would rather the Irish trial did not focus on a group like the unemployed and rather a more general group of people, preferably a geographical area. To pay every resident in Ireland the basic income would cost an estimated €6.5 billion per annum.

Some taxes suggested to raise for money for UBI in the Green Party policy include pension funds, site value tax, speculative transaction tax and stamp duty for property trades that are not the principal private residence.

UBI would be given to each recipient from birth or point of residency, from "cradle to grave", with the amount given to those under 26 years of age varied depending on wages - in a similar way to how social welfare exists today - with a set rate given to all adults over 26. Children under 18-years-old would receive €32.31 per week, according to the Green Party plan, with €112.70 for 18 to 21-year-olds, €157.80 for 21 to 25-year-olds and €203 for adults over 26 years old.

'It's giving everyone a low amount of money and we will give unemployed people less than they need and unnecessarily so'

UBI is not without its critics. Laura Bambrick, the head of social policy and employment affairs at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, finds the idea of replacing existing welfare safety nets concerning. The money needed to pay adequate UBI, she says, "would be better spent on reforming social protection systems and building better quality public services".

"Our welfare system is complex precisely because the root causes of poverty are complex," Bambrick says. "A one-size-fits-all payment will hurt those with the greatest risk of poverty."

She believes that no UBI payment would work as well as an average European welfare system for the most vulnerable people. And she contends that providing welfare top-up's on top of UBI, as advocated by some proponents of this system, would end up being far too costly. "[It] would make for a uniquely Irish UBI, and I look forward to seeing their maths." Hourigan says that the difference between the current welfare rates and UBI will be made up by further State payments.

Welfare and efficient use of resources also concerns Ian Goldin, Professor of Globalisation and Development at Oxford University, who has spoken against UBI in the past.

He says that if you gave everyone half the minimum wage in Ireland, it would be bigger than the budget of all social welfare. He points out that UBI is favoured by tech billionaires and right-wing libertarians as well as left-wing progressives, and it may be used by the rich to normalise the automation of employment and abolish existing welfare supports.

"It's giving everyone a low amount of money and we will give unemployed people less than they need and unnecessarily so. That is not the answer to either poverty inequality or the future of work."

Goldin also takes issue at the universality of UBI, saying it is a waste of needed funds to give the income to the wealthy. He says that societal safety nets and raising the wage of low-paid and vulnerable workers through the current system would be a more worthy use of resources.

'UBI is not going to solve the housing crisis. But it is part of a general investment for a better and fairer society'

The other issue frequently brought up by critics of UBI is the danger that an unconditional payment would disincentivise work, even though the trials done so far suggest that payments have little effect on employment.

Danny McCoy,chief executive of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec), says UBI would "undermine our current active labour market policies" which would "result in labour supply challenges and could diminish overall labour cost competitiveness in the economy".

He says that Ibec remains open to debate on the merits of UBI and research that indicates it could be positive for entrepreneurship. On that point, Lambert highlights a UBI project in Namibia, which found it helped local business as they had the financial security to work on business ideas.

Hourigan says that Covid-19 has changed the discussion and been valuable to the UBI debate. "There has always been a real resistance to the idea that our current tax system and economic models could support such a payment. The Covid-19 crisis has refocused the minds of many towards the well-being of communities.

"UBI is not going to solve the housing crisis," says Lambert. "But it is part of a general investment for a better and fairer society."

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Basic income for all: Has the Covid crisis given us a new economic model?

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The concept of a universal basic income has already been suggested for arts workers hit by the pandemic, but what if there was a constant security and safety net for all, a payment always delivered to all citizens with no strings attached?

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On 25 September 2020, a coalition of Universal Basic Income activist groups across Europe launched a petition to the Europe Commission, calling for the introduction of UBI schemes throughout the European Union. This petition kicks Read more...

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On 25 September 2020, a coalition of Universal Basic Income activist groups across Europe launched a petition to the Europe Commission, calling for the introduction of UBI schemes throughout the European Union. This petition kicks Read more...

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A proposal for a three-year pilot of a universal basic income in the arts, culture, audio visual and live performance and events sector has been backed unanimously by the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce appointed by Minister Catherine Martin.

The basic, unconditional, opt-in wage for artists and cultural workers, based on the national Minimum Wage of €10.20 an hour, would be in lieu of other welfare payments, and would allow creatives to earn other income separately when work was available.

The report analyses the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and other payments and says a universal basic income (UBI) of the national minimum wage for 31.9 hours gives a weekly payment of €325.38 .

Average earnings in the sector are €584.84 so the basic income measure would on average replace 55.6 per cent of that, it says.

The detailed proposal was the first of a comprehensive strategy of 10 actions in Life Worth Living, the report of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce, which was unveiled after Tuesday's Cabinet meeting.

The 18-person taskforce, chaired by Clare Duignan, included artists, representative bodies and officials from several Government departments. It was charged with making recommendations to ensure the survival of culture, arts, audio-visual, live performance and the events sector, until it fully opens up again.

Both Ms Duignan and the Minister pointed out "the arts and culture sector was the first to shut and will in many cases be the last to reopen", because of Covid-19, and the proposals in the taskforce report were vital to ensure survival.

"The sector is unravelling," Ms Duignan said, adding that each month the situation was getting worse, and the sector could take years to rebuild.

Another proposal is a capital improvement scheme to reimagine public spaces, with funds for local authorities to adapt, equip or improve places for culture and events. "This would improve the quality of life for people across the country, as we are faced with living more of our lives outdoors," said Ms Duignan.

Ms Martin will appoint an oversight committee to see the recommendations are implemented. She said there was strong Cabinet support for the proposals, including the Universal Basic Income , with a commitment to introduce the pilot during the Government's lifetime. The basic income project would be examined by the Low Pay Commission. Ms Martin pointed out there has been an income support scheme for cultural workers in place in France since 1936.

The report includes wide-ranging recommendations on policy and planning, income, taxation and financial provision, education and training, technology supports, mental health, social protection, community development, social inclusion and copyright. Ms Duignan said the taskforce members backed all the proposals unanimously.

Regarding the cost to the Exchequer, it says figures on October 22nd show 7,042 people claiming PUP in the category "Arts, entertainment and recreation", which includes sports. The average pandemic unemployment payment - which depends on income before Covid-19 struck - is €276 per week.

It says a UBI of €325.38 per week would be €49.38 per week higher than the average PUP payment for the sector, or an additional €2,567 a year. This would cost an additional €2.5m per annum, over and above the current PUP cost, per 1,000 participants in the pilot.

Copyright and mentoring

The report also advocates transposing into Irish law both the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, and the Audio Visual Media Service Directive, to ensure fair pay for makers of creative content. In addition, it proposes training and mentorship to bring green initiatives and sustainability to the arts, culture and creative industries.

The National Campaign for the Arts, which participated in the taskforce, said the report's proposals were a further significant step towards the survival, recovery and strengthening of the arts and events industries. It was particularly happy about the pilot of a Universal Basic Income, which it has pushed for and "which will be transformative for so many artists and arts workers".

Irish Equity trade union, representing performers, also welcomed the proposal to introduce a basic income scheme for arts workers.

Epic working group, representing skilled event industry workers, said the task force had produced "crucial recommendations critical for the survival of the live events sector".

The report was also welcomed by Screen Producers Ireland, and by Event Industry Ireland (EII), representing the business events industry and also involved in the taskforce, particularly its "constructive proposals", including a Business Supports Grant Scheme for SMEs in the event industry that are excluded from the Covid-19 Restrictions Support Scheme.

Regarding the current ban on live shows, Ms Duignan said arts spaces such as theatres, galleries and cinemas were highly controlled, professionally run environments and strong consideration should be given to amending the current restrictions, particularly at Level 3. Health and safety expertise in the sector could ensure safety, she said.

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Universal basic income of €325 a week mooted for arts workers

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A proposal for a three-year pilot of a universal basic income in the arts, culture, audio visual and live performance and events sector has been backed unanimously by the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce appointed by Minister Catherine Martin.

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The Irish Taxation system: Trends over time and international comparisons

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The Irish Taxation system: Trends over time and international comparisons

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The Irish Taxation System: trends over time and international comparisons | Public Policy

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Tax revenue fell substantially during the Great Recession: decreasing by €15bn or 33% from €47bn in 2007 to a low point of €32bn in 2010. As the economy stabilised after 2011, tax revenues also recovered at an annual average rate of 7% per year – reaching almost €60bn in 2019. As a share of nationa…

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Foreign aid is controversial in development economics. Three distinct camps may be distinguished:

One believes that official assistance is ineffective, and has harmed poor countries throughout the years.

This views official aid as creating dependency, fostering corruption, and encouraging currency overvaluation (Easterly 2014 and Moyo 2010). It also prevents countries from taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the global economy.

Another camp believes that aid levels have been too low, and that large increases would help reduce poverty.

This camp, however, believes we need a rethinking on the way in which aid is provided (Sachs 2009 and Stiglitz 2002). In particular, specific interventions, such as anti-malaria programmes, should be emphasised.

The third camp is less vocal, and includes authors such as Collier (2007), who has emphasised the role of a number of 'traps' in perpetuating destitution, and Banerjee and Duflo (2011) who argue that the use of 'randomised control trials' may help devise effective and specific aid programmes in the war against poverty and underdevelopment.[1]

These schools of thought have historical precedents.
Foreign aid policies from a historical perspective
Foreign aid is a relatively new concept in economics. The classics - Smith, Ricardo, and Stuart Mill, for example - didn't address the subject in any significant way. If anything, classical economists thought that the colonies would catch up - and even surpass - the home country quite rapidly.[2] In Chapter VII of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith provides a detailed discussion on the "causes of the prosperity of the new colonies."[3]

The first legal statute dealing expressly with official aid was passed by Parliament in the UK in 1929.[4] In 1940 and 1945, new laws dealing with aid to the colonies were passed in the UK. These Acts increased the amount of funds available, and made commitments for longer periods of time - for up to ten years in the Colonial Development and Welfare Act of 1945. More important, the Act of 1945 established that aid plans had to be prepared "in consultation with representatives of the local population."[5]

In the US the first law dealing with foreign assistance came quite late, with the adoption of the Marshall Plan in 1948.[6] In his inaugural speech on 20 January 1949 - the so-called 'Four Point Speech' - President Harry Truman put forward, for the first time, the idea that aid to poor nations was an important component of US foreign policy. He said that one of the goals of his administration would be to foster "growth of underdeveloped areas."[7]

In spite of Truman's vehement allocution, aid commitments to poor countries were considered temporary. In 1953, when Congress extended the Mutual Security Act, it explicitly stated that economic aid to US allies would end in two years; military aid was to come to a halt in three years.

In the early 1960s - and largely as a result of the escalation of the Cold War - the US revised its posture regarding bilateral assistance, and, jointly with other advanced countries, founded the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) at the newly formed Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The main objective of the DAC was - and continues to be - to coordinate aid to the poorest countries.[8]
Foreign aid policies and academics' views on development
Academic research has helped shape international aid policies. During the 1950s and 1960s, aid agencies' work was influenced by the Harrod-Domar growth model and by W. Arthur Lewis' unlimited supplies of labour model. As a result, most agencies funded very large capital-intensive projects, and neglected policies, projects, and programmes related to labour, human capital, and productivity.

This changed in the late 1960s and 1970s with the ascendance of Solow's neoclassical model of growth, and the development of the 'basic needs' approach to welfare economics. Aid policies changed focus, and a higher percentage of funds were devoted to social programmes (health and education), programmes aimed at directly reducing poverty, and programmes that strengthened skills and human capital.

Further changes in aid policy came with research that related openness and exports' expansion to productivity growth. The work of Anne Krueger and Jagdish Bhagwati was particularly important. During the 1980s and 1990s, international assistance became increasingly conditioned on the recipient countries liberalising their economies through the elimination of quantitative import restrictions and the lowering of import tariffs.

The development of the 'dependent economy' macroeconomic model, with tradable and nontradable goods, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, helped put emphasis on the crucial role of the real exchange rate in the resource allocation process. Works by Robert Mundell, Rudi Dornbusch, and others pointed out that real exchange rate overvaluation was costly and at the heart of devastating currency crises. These works, in conjunction with research undertaken by Robert Bates and Elliot Berg, among others, influenced aid agencies' views regarding currencies, incentives, exports, and agriculture. The very poor performance of the agricultural sector between 1965 and 1985 in most regions - and in particular in Africa - also affected thinking in the aid agencies, and contributed to a new view that emphasised 'getting prices right'.

In the 1990s, two research lines influenced aid policy.

Work on incentive compatibility and strategic behaviour persuaded aid officials in donor countries to become more flexible, and to incorporate recipient governments in the design and management of aid programmes.

This approach received the name of 'programme ownership', and has been at the heart of improved relations between donors and poor nations in the last two decades.

New research on capital mobility and the international transmission of crises, resulted in a more nuanced and pragmatic view regarding the use of capital controls.

Many agencies - including the IMF and the World Bank - supported a limited use of capital controls (especially controls on capital inflows) and so-called macro-prudential regulations, as a way of avoiding destabilising forces and currency crises.
Econometric studies
Academic and aid-community economists have used a battery of econometric methods to analyse whether aid is effective in the sense of generating higher growth and better economic outcomes.[9] Some of these studies have tried to tackle issues of reverse causality, and have used a series of instruments - some more convincing than others - in an attempt to deal with the fact that slower growth (in very poor countries) may attract additional aid.

Some research focused on whether aid only works under certain conditions, or whether a minimal degree of institutional development is required for international assistance to bear fruit (Burnside and Dollar 2000, 2004). Many of these studies have considered nonlinear functional forms, and have investigated if there are meaningful interactions between aid and other variables, such as the degree of literacy, the level of corruption, the extent of macroeconomic stability, institutional strength, the quality of overall economic policies, and geography.

In general, most studies have relied on cross-country or panel data, and have attempted to distinguish between short- and long-term impacts. A number of authors have used 'Dutch disease'-related models to analyse the extent to which increased aid results in currency overvaluation, poor exports performance, and crises - see Rajan and Subramanian (2011).
Fragile and inconclusive results
Overall, the results from this large body of research have been fragile and inconclusive.

After analysing 97 studies, Doucouliagos and Paldam (2008, 2009) concluded that, in the best of cases, it was possible to say that there was a small positive, and yet statistically insignificant, relationship between official aid and growth.

This conclusion was also reached by Rajan and Subramanian (2008) in an analysis that corrected for potential endogeneity problems, and that considered a comprehensive number of covariates. In particular, according to this study there is no clear relation running from more aid to faster growth; this is true even in countries with better policy environment and stronger institutions - see also Rajan and Subramanian (2008) and Quibria (2014).

Bourguignon and Sundberg (2007) have argued that one should not be surprised by the inconclusiveness of studies that rely on aggregate data.

According to them, aid affects economic performance, directly and indirectly, through a variety of channels. Treating all aid as homogeneous - independently of whether it is emergency assistance, programme aid, or project-based aid - is misleading. In their view it is necessary to break open the 'black box' of international aid, and deconstruct the causality chain that goes, in intricate and non-obvious ways, from aid to policymakers, to policies, and to country outcomes. This type of analysis would explore a number of specific ways in which international assistance could impact economic performance. In particular, according to Bourguignon and Sundberg (2007) it is important that studies that try to determine the impact of aid on growth consider issues related to technical assistance, conditionality, level of understanding of the economy in question, and the government's ability to implement specific policies.[10]
Bitter policy controversy
In spite of its intensity, the academic debate pales in comparison with recent policy controversies on the subject. The level of animosity in this veritable war of ideas is illustrated by the following quote from an article by Jeffrey Sachs published in 2009:

"Moyo's views [are] cruel and mistaken... [Moyo and Easterly are] trying to pull up the ladder for those still left behind."[11]

Easterly's reply, also from 2009, was equally strong:

"Jeffrey Sachs [is]... the world's leading apologist and fund-raiser for the aid establishment... Sachs suffers from [an]... acute shortage of truthiness..."[12]

The Easterly-Sachs debate has generated public attention because it has been couched in rather simple terms. These are simple narratives based on ethnographic arguments that resonate with large segments of the general public. But behind the different positions there are hundreds of academic studies - most of them based on advanced econometric techniques - that have tried to determine the extent to which foreign aid is effective. The problem, as noted, is that much of this body of empirical work has resulted in fragile and inconclusive evidence.
Intermediate positions
For an increasing number of economists, the issue of aid effectiveness is neither black nor white. Indeed, a number of authors have taken intermediate positions. For example, in an influential book that deals with the plight of the poorest of the poor, Collier (2009) has argued that both critics and staunch supporters of official aid have greatly exaggerated their claims and distorted the empirical and historical records.

Collier's reading of the evidence is that over the last 30 years official assistance has helped accelerate GDP growth among the poorest nations in the world - most of them in Africa - by approximately 1% per year. This is a nontrivial figure, especially when one considers that during this period the poorest countries have had an aggregate rate of per capita growth of zero. That is, in the absence of official assistance, the billion people that live in these nations - the so-called 'bottom billion' - would have seen their incomes retrogress year after year.

Banerjee and Duflo (2011) argue that there is need for a "radical rethinking of the way to fight poverty." In their view, the acrimonious debate between the Easterly and Sachs factions has missed the boat. Banerjee and Duflo join a growing group of researchers in arguing that this controversy cannot be solved in the abstract, by using aggregate data and cross-country regressions. The evidence, in their view, is quite simple - some projects financed by official aid work and are effective in reducing poverty and moving the domestic populations towards self-sufficiency and prosperity, while other projects (and programmes) fail miserably. The question is not how aggregate aid programmes have fared in the past, but how to evaluate whether specific programmes are effective.
Persuasive 'aid narratives'
In Edwards (2014b) I discuss the effectiveness-of-aid literature from a historical perspective, and I argue that international aid affects recipient economies in extremely complex ways and through multiple and changing channels. Moreover, this is a two-way relationship - aid agencies influence policies, and the reality in the recipient country affects the actions of aid agencies. This relationship is so intricate and time-dependent that it is not amenable to being captured by cross-country or panel regressions; in fact, even sophisticated specifications with multiple breakpoints and nonlinearities are unlikely to explain the inner workings of the aid-performance connection.

Bourguignon and Sundberg (2007) have pointed out that there is a need to go beyond econometrics, and to break open the 'black box' of development aid. I would go even further, and argue that we need to realise that there is a multiplicity of black boxes. Or, to put it differently, that the black box is highly elastic and keeps changing through time. Breaking these boxes open and understanding why aid works some times and not others, and why some projects are successful while other are disasters, requires analysing in great detail specific country episodes. If we want to truly understand the convoluted ways in which official aid affects different economic outcomes, we need to plunge into archives, analyse data in detail, carefully look for counterfactuals, understand the temperament of the major players, and take into account historical circumstances. This is a difficult subject that requires detective-like work.
References
Banerjee, A and E Duflo (2011), Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of The Way to Fight Global Poverty, New York: Public Affairs.

Barder, O (2005), "Reforming Development Assistance: Lessons from the UK Experience", Center for Global Development Working Paper 70.

Bates, R (1981), Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies, 2nd edition from 2005, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Bhagwati, J (1978), Anatomy and Consequences of Exchange Control Regimes, Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.

Bourguignon, F and M Sundberg (2007), "Aid Effectiveness: Opening the Black Box", American Economic Review 97(2): 316-321.

Burnside, C and D Dollar (2000), "Aid, policies, and growth", American Economic Review: 847-868.

Burnside, C and D Dollar (2004), "Aid, policies, and growth: reply", American Economic Review: 781-784.

Collier, P (2007), The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Doucouliagos, H and M Paldam (2008), "Aid effectiveness on growth: A meta study", European Journal of Political Economy 24(1): 1-24.

Doucouliagos, H and M Paldam (2009), "The aid effectiveness literature: The sad results of 40 years of research", Journal of Economic Surveys 23(3): 433-461.

Easterly, W (2009), " Sachs Ironies: Why Critics are Better for Foreign Aid than Apologists ", Huffington Post, 25 May.

Easterly, W (2014), The tyranny of experts: Economists, dictators, and the forgotten rights of the poor, Basic Books.

Edwards, S (2014a), Toxic Aid: Economic Collapse and Recovery in Tanzania, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Edwards, S (2014b), "Economic Development and the Effectiveness of Foreign Aid: A Historical Perspective", NBER Working Paper 20685.

Guillaumont, P and L Wagner (2014), "Aid effectiveness for poverty reduction: lessons from cross-country analyses, with a special focus on vulnerable countries", Revue d'économie du développement 22: 217-261.

Krueger, A (1978), Liberalization Attempts and Consequences, Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.

Moyo, D (2010), Dead Aid: Why Aid Makes Things Worse and How There Is Another Way for Africa, London: Penguin Books.

Mundell, R A (1962), "The appropriate use of monetary and fiscal policy for internal and external stability", Staff Papers - International Monetary Fund 9(1): 70-79.

Quibria, M G (2014), "Aid effectiveness: research, policy and unresolved issues", Development Studies Research: An Open Access Journal 1(1): 75-87.

Radelet, S (2006), "A Primer on Aid Allocation", Center for Global Development Working Paper 92.

Radelet, S, M Clemens, and R Bhavnani (2005), "Aid and Growth: The Current Debate and Some New Evidence", in P Isard et al. (eds.), Macroeconomic Management of Foreign Aid: Opportunities and Pitfalls, Washington, DC: IMF.

Rajan, R and A Subramanian (2008), "Aid and Growth: What Does the Cross-Country Evidence Really Show?", Review of Economics and Statistics 90(4): 643-665.

Rajan, R G and A Subramanian (2011), "Aid, Dutch disease, and manufacturing growth", Journal of Development Economics 94(1): 106-118.

Sachs, J (2005), The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, New York: Penguin Press.

Sachs, J (2009), " Aid Ironies ", Huffington Post, 24 May.

Smith, A (1977 [1776]), An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Stiglitz, J (2002), Globalization and Its Discontents, W M Norton.

Truman, H (1949), Inaugural Address, 20 January.

World Bank (1981), Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Agenda for Action (The Berg Report), Washington, DC: World Bank.
Footnotes
[1] For a detailed discussion of these issues see Edwards (2014b).

[2] The analysis in this section doesn't pretend to be exhaustive. I don't attempt to deal with every aspect of aid-related controversies. Readers interested in the intricacies of international assistance may consult some of the very thorough surveys on the subject, including two comprehensive articles by Radelet (2005, 2006) and Quibria (2014), and the extensive literature cited therein.

[3] In many ways this analysis is remarkably modern. Smith argues that the main reason why the English colonies of North America had done significantly better than the Spanish dominions of South America was that "the political institutions of the English colonies have been more favourable to the improvement and cultivation of this land than those of the [Spanish colonies]." Smith goes on to list a number of policies implemented by the British - including tax, inheritance, and trade policies - that, in his view, explain the economic success in what was to become the US; in parallel, he discusses how poor policies enacted by the Dutch and the Spanish - and to a lesser extent by the French - stifled growth and progress in their dominions. Although this chapter runs for almost 100 pages, there is not even a mild suggestion that the home nation should provide systematic financial assistance to its colonies.

[4] The Colonial Development Act created the Colonial Development Fund with resources of one million pounds sterling per year. Although this Act intended to improve the social conditions in the colonies - especially in the rural sector - its main objective was to promote British exports at a time when the overvaluation of the pound had greatly reduced British competitiveness. Until the passing of this legislation the colonies were supposed to be, largely, self-financing, and any aid was confined to emergencies.

[5] Barder (2005: 3), emphasis added.

[6] The Marshall Plan, which was announced by US Secretary of State George C. Marshall in a speech at Harvard University on 5 June 1947, played an important role in defining US policy towards foreign aid.

[7] He then added that "more than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery... For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and the skill to relieve the suffering of these people."

[8] In 1946 France created its first aid agency (FIDES), which in 1963 was replaced by the Ministry of Cooperation. The Nordic countries created their own aid agencies in 1962.

[9] See Guillaumont and Wagner (2014) and Quibria (2014) for comprehensive recent reviews. See, also, Johnson and Subramanian (2005), Rajan and Subramanian (2008), Collier and Dollar (2004), Bourgouignon and Saunders (2007), and Quibria (2014), and the literature cited therein. See Booth (2012) for a discussion on aid effectiveness and governance.

[10] See Quibria (2014) and Edwards (2014a, 2014b) for discussions of these issues.

[11] Sachs (2009).

[12] Easterly (2009, 2014).
Published in collaboration with VoxEU. Author: Sebastian Edwards is the Henry Ford II Professor of International Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Image: A Bozo fisherman casts his net from a pirogue in front of Saaya village in the Niger river inland delta February 7, 2007. REUTERS.

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The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.

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The reference period for the population estimates is mid-April of each year. The migration flows are in respect of the twelve months to mid-April of the corresponding years, as are the births and deaths. The usually resident population classified by age and sex for 2016 are taken from the Census of Population.

Usual residence population concept

For the purpose of this release the population concept of usual residence has been used, i.e. all persons usually resident and present in the State on census night plus absent persons who are usually resident in Ireland but are temporarily away from home and outside the State on census night. All persons are classified according to their region of usual residence.

Migration Definitions

Immigration - means the action by which a person establishes his or her usual residence in the State for a period that is, or is expected to be, of at least 12 months, having previously been usually resident in another Member State or a third country.

Emigration - means the action by which a person, having previously been usually resident in the State, ceases to have his or her usual residence in the State for a period that is, or is expected to be, of at least 12 months.

Source of Migration data

The principal source of information for the estimation of the gross annual migration flows is the Irish Labour Force Survey (LFS), which also provides the basis for the classification of the flows by sex, age group, origin/destination and nationality.

The migration estimates are compiled with reference to movements in other migration indicators such as the number of Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers allocated to non-Irish nationals and new registrations with the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB). The number of visas issued to Irish nationals to a number of destinations including Australia, USA and Canada are compared with the emigration data collected by the LFS. In addition, data on National Insurance numbers (equivalent to PPS numbers) issued to Irish nationals in the UK is referenced. Mirror statistics measuring the flows of Irish nationals to/from the EU28 are also examined.

The release also provides estimates of immigration and emigration by educational attainment ( Table 5) and principal economic status ( Table 6), based on responses in the LFS. The principal economic status question refers to persons aged 15 years or over and is a self-perception question, i.e. people are classified according to how they perceive their situation.

As with all breakdowns of migration (by age, nationality, origin and destination), the breakdown by educational attainment and principal economic status should be considered broadly indicative given the relatively small sample sizes associated with these flows. In addition, as a person's principal economic status can change over the course of a year (and to a lesser extent their educational attainment), for immigrants these two tables refer to their status in the quarter prior to the April of the year in question, while for emigrants it is their status in the period prior to departure.

Calculation of annual population estimates

The annual population estimates for mid-April are calculated by trending forwards the previous Census of Population data. For example, the base population data for estimating the April 2017 figure was the number of males and females in each region by single year of age and nationality as established by the 2016 Census. From this base, each person was aged by one year, births for the period were added and deaths were subtracted. The estimated number of immigrants was then added and the number of emigrants was subtracted. Allowance was also made for estimated inter-regional migration in arriving at the final 2017 figures.

The end result of this overall process provided the population estimate for April 2017 which in turn will provide the base population for the subsequent year and so on. The population estimates are subject to revision once the definitive results of the next census become available.

The population by nationality estimates are made possible by trending forwards the previous Census of Population and incorporating gross migration flows by nationality based on responses in the LFS. Allowance is also made for the non-Irish nationals who acquire citizenship certificates over the period in question. The number of births by nationality is estimated using the distribution of the nationality of births as recorded in the 2016 Census, while deaths by nationality are also estimated based on recent census results using the nationality distribution of the population by five year age groups.

Natural Increase

The General Registration Office (GRO) supplies registered data for births and deaths and these are typically added to the population file quarterly in arrears (N+1).

Internal migration

By examining a person's usual residence at the time of a census and one year previously it is possible to determine inter-regional migration patterns. Following each Census a new internal migration matrix is produced and used to measure inter-censal internal migration. Internal migration for the year to April 2019 takes account of the Census 2016 results.

Nationality

All persons with Irish nationality or citizenship are classified under the category "Irish" in table 9 (Estimated population classified by sex and nationality).

The Irish Naturalization and Immigration Service provide annual data for persons who acquire Irish citizenship. The availability of the citizenship data for year N is N+2 and so estimates for 2018 and subsequent years will be achieved by trending forward the rates noted for the most recent year available. Therefore, for the purpose of the 2019 release the 2017 distribution of citizenship acquisitions was applied.

NUTS2 and NUTS3 Regions

The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) were created by Eurostat in order to define territorial units for the production of regional statistics across the European Union. In 2003 the NUTS classification was established within a legal framework (Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003).

As the administrative territorial breakdown of EU Member States is the basis of the NUTS classification, changes made under the 2014 Local Government Act prompted a revision to the Irish NUTS 2 and NUTS 3 Regions. These changes included the amalgamation of the local authorities of Tipperary North and South, Limerick City and County Councils and Waterford City and County Councils. In addition three Regional Assemblies were established (Northern & Western, Southern, Eastern & Midland).

The main changes at NUTS 3 level are the transfer of South Tipperary from the South-East into the Mid-West NUTS 3 region and the movement of Louth from the Border to the Mid-East NUTS 3 Region. There are now three NUTS 2 Regions which correspond to the Regional Assemblies established in the 2014 Local Government Act and are groupings of the new NUTS 3 Regions. The revisions made to the NUTS boundaries have been given legal status under Commission Regulation (EU) 2016/2066. The new NUTS 2 and NUTS 3 structure and classification are displayed in the table below:

Hide Background Notes

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The reference period for the population estimates is mid-April of each year. The migration flows are in respect of the twelve months to mid-April of the corresponding years, as are the births and deaths. The usually resident population classified by age and sex for 2016 are taken from the Census of Population.

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Union officials portray a day in the life of a meat worker

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Covid-19 outbreaks attributed to substandard employment and living conditions

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Education

Mathematics performance (PISA), Mean score, 2018
Reading performance (PISA), Mean score, 2018
Science performance (PISA), Mean score, 2018

Air and GHG emissions, Carbon dioxide (CO2), latest available year

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Mathematics performance (PISA), Mean score, 2018 Reading performance (PISA), Mean score, 2018 Science performance (PISA), Mean score, 2018 Air and GHG emissions, Carbon dioxide (CO2), latest available year

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'I go into work feeling scared': Migrant meat plant workers tell their stories

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2015 marks 25 years since the first Human Development Report introduced a new approach for advancing human flourishing. And while the expression "human development" is widely used, it is understood in different ways around the world. So on the occasion of the 25th anniversary year of human development reporting, we'd like to highlight how the Human Development Report Office (HDRO) presents human development.

Credit: UNDP Kosovo's animation "What is Human Development?" explains and promotes sustainable human development.

Human development grew out of global discussions on the links between economic growth and development during the second half of the 20th Century. By the early 1960s there were increasingly loud calls to "dethrone" GDP: economic growth had emerged as both a leading objective, and indicator, of national progress in many countries i, even though GDP was never intended to be used as a measure of wellbeing ii. In the 1970s and 80s development debate considered using alternative focuses to go beyond GDP, including putting greater emphasis on employment, followed by redistribution with growth, and then whether people had their basic needs met.

These ideas helped pave the way for the human development approach, which is about expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the richness of the economy in which human beings live. It is an approach that is focused on creating fair opportunities and choices for all people. So how do these ideas come together in the human development approach?

People: the human development approach focuses on improving the lives people lead rather than assuming that economic growth will lead, automatically, to greater opportunities for all. Income growth is an important means to development, rather than an end in itself.

Opportunities: human development is about giving people more freedom and opportunities to live lives they value. In effect this means developing people's abilities and giving them a chance to use them. For example, educating a girl would build her skills, but it is of little use if she is denied access to jobs, or does not have the skills for the local labour market. The diagram below looks at aspects of human development that are foundational (that is they are a fundamental part of human development); and aspects that are more contextual (that is they help to create the conditions that allow people to flourish). Three foundations for human development are to live a healthy and creative life, to be knowledgeable, and to have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living. Many other aspects are important too, especially in helping to create the right conditions for human development, such as environmental sustainability or equality between men and women.

Enlarge diagram
Once the basics of human development are achieved, they open up opportunities for progress in other aspects of life.

Choices: human development is, fundamentally, about more choice. It is about providing people with opportunities, not insisting that they make use of them. No one can guarantee human happiness, and the choices people make are their own concern. The process of development - human development - should at least create an environment for people, individually and collectively, to develop to their full potential and to have a reasonable chance of leading productive and creative lives that they value.

The human development approach, developed by the economist Mahbub Ul Haq, is anchored in Amartya Sen's work on human capabilities, often framed in terms of whether people are able to "be" and "do" desirable things in life iii. Examples include

Beings: well fed, sheltered, healthy

Doings: work, education, voting, participating in community life.

Freedom of choice is central: someone choosing to be hungry (during a religious fast say) is quite different to someone who is hungry because they cannot afford to buy food.

As the international community seeks to define a new development agenda post-2015, the human development approach remains useful to articulating the objectives of development and improving people's well-being by ensuring an equitable, sustainable and stable planet.
i Kennedy, Robert. (1968). Address to the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas on March 18, 1968. www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27718.htm
ii Simon Kuznets, who created GDP, warned expressly against using it as a measure of wellbeing. Kuznets, Simon. "National Income, 1929-1932." U.S. Congress, Senate Doc. No. 124-73, at 7 (1934)
iii Professor Sen was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 for his work in welfare economics. Photo credit: UNDP Mongolia's #GivingTuesday More on human development

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2015 marks 25 years since the first Human Development Report introduced a new approach for advancing human flourishing. And while the expression "human development" is widely used, it is understood in different ways around the world. So on the occasion of the 25th anniversary year of human development reporting, we'd like to highlight how the Human Development Report Office (HDRO) presents human development.

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Note: Data presented here were used in the preparation of the 2021/2022 Human Development Report "Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World", released on 8 September 2022. The Human Development Report Office releases six composite indices each year: the Human Development Index (HDI), the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI), the Gender Development Index (GDI), the Gender Inequality Index (GII), the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and the Planetary pressure-adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI). Data used in these indices and other human development indicators included here are provided by a variety of public international sources and represent the best statistics available for those indicators at the time of the preparation of the human development report.

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Note: Data presented here were used in the preparation of the 2021/2022 Human Development Report "Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World", released on 8 September 2022.

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The Chief Officer of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has warned that there are "considerable pressures" on the construction budget for the completion of the National Children's Hospital.

David Gunning and other representatives from the board are appearing before the Oireachtas Health Committee to give an update on the building of the new hospital.

Mr Gunning said that the budget for the completion of the NCH is currently €1.433bn and the NPHDB is currently "operating within that budgetary scope". However, he said that time impacts costs and the project has suffered delays.

Covid-19 restrictions in March delayed construction by seven weeks, however the project was already behind at that point by six months. Construction was permitted under Covid-19 guidelines to recommence on 18 May. However, BAM did not reopen the site until 13 July, a further seven week delay.

In a statement to RTÉ News, BAM construction company said it is fully committed to delivering the hospital as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The firm said it submitted several work programmes and has updated the Hospital Board every month.

It said BAM has still not received a fully complete, coordinated design for the project and that new amendments are being added all the time.

The statement said that the contract requires BAM to notify the NPHDB of every event which might give rise to an additional cost or a delay.

It said there have been almost 10,000 new drawings since January 2019.

Therefore, the company said, it is "hardly surprising" that there are hundreds of notifications from BAM and its major subcontractors of potential additional costs/delays.

The statement also says that managing the public health guidelines and working restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 situation continues to provide great uncertainty for the project timelines.

BAM said it is putting measures in place to get as many workers on site and productivity as high as possible, but the sooner Covid-19 restrictions are eased the better.

Mr Gunning said that the board is withholding 15% of the fees owed to the construction company, BAM, each month, to ensure the project is completed as quickly as possible.

He said that BAM has been under-performing on project execution and has been extremely assertive regarding claims.

He said since the commencement of the project there have been hundreds of claims for hundreds of millions of Euro. He said the claims are being made for funding on matters that the board believes fall within its contractual obligations.

In a written opening statement he said that in April the board filed a High Court action against BAM, which relates to the instruction for the Phase B construction works issued to BAM by the board in January last year.

However, BAM had made a claim disputing the validity of that instruction.

Mr Gunning said that in order to rigorously defend the public purse, the board has been left with no option but to bring the matter to the High Court.

Earlier, the Chief Executive of Children's Health Ireland, which oversees the three children's hospitals in Dublin, told the committee that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown more than ever the need for the new national children's hospital.

In an opening statement, Eilish Hardiman told politicians that more timely and greater access to paediatric services remains its greatest challenge.

Ms Hardiman said that there are several infrastructure and workforce constraints contributing to waiting lists, which are all addressed in the new children's hospital.

She said that CHI has returned its activity levels to an average of 90% of 2019, month-on-month, after activity was reduced due to the pandemic.

Ms Hardiman pointed out that there has been a decrease in emergency department presentations but an increase in mental health presentations since the pandemic began.

She said that the new children's hospital will expand the physical capacity and type of facilities needed to increase activity and reduce waiting times in all paediatric services.

Ms Hardiman told committee members that the challenges created by Covid-19 have enhanced the difficulties for patients and staff in hospitals delivering care to Ireland's sickest children in outdated facilities.

She also said that the board expects building of the second Paediatric Outpatient and Urgent Care Centre based at Tallaght to be completed by September 2021.

Sinn Féin Health spokesperson David Cullinane asked when the National Children's Hospital would be completed.

He asked if the Board could provide an estimate as to when the project would be completed, and if it would be some time this year or next year.

Mr Gunning said the completion date was August 2022.

However, he said that date would not be hit and he said in the absence of a work programme from the contractor BAM they could not provide a completion date.

Mr Gunning said he could not give an answer to that question this year but could provide the answer early next year.

Mr Cullinane said it was "deeply unfortunate" that the board cannot give an estimated timeframe for completion.

Mr Gunning also said that the contractor was not complying with its obligations.

Mr Cullinane asked if this was a breach of the contract. Mr Gunning said you could call it a breach and the remedy was withholding the 15% of the payment owed every month to the company.

Deputy Cullinane described the project as a "complete and absolute mess" and said the Board must appear again before the committee next year with more information.

Responding to a question from Fianna Fáil's John Lahart about how far behind BAM is in relation to the development, Mr Gunning said that before the Covid-19 pandemic, the project was six months behind schedule.

He said there was a seven week delay due to Covid restrictions, and another seven weeks where the contractor failed to return to work.

Co-leader of the Social Democrats Róisín Shorthall asked what the working assumption was in relation to the estimated completion date and the total cost.

Mr Gunning said they are working with the contractor and hope to provide an update to stakeholders early next year.

He said the working assumption is that they are working to the contract timelines until such a time that they are changed.

Deputy Shorthall said the board was "delusional" and was deluding the committee and the taxpayer.

In relation to the cost, Mr Gunning said they were currently operating within the €1.433bn but he said there was considerable pressure on the budget.

He said an updated cost projection could be provided at the same time they would provide stakeholders with an updated schedule in the first quarter of next year.

Deputy Shorthall said it was "highly unsatisfactory" that the Board could not answer any of the committee's questions and she said they were wasting their time.

Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime after the committee concluded, Ms Shortall said the project is "like a runaway train" and that the Minister for Health needs to step in.

"We need an assurance that there is proper expertise available to control this issue and ensure it finishes at the earliest possible date", she said. "And to ensure that we keep costs under control."

Deputy Shortall said "there are questions to be answered" by Department of Public expenditure and reform.

"It's just not acceptable that major and public infrastructure projects like this one are so far over the original estimated cost."

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'Considerable pressures' on NCH construction budget

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The Chief Officer of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has warned that there are "considerable pressures" on the construction budget for the completion of the National Children's Hospital. David Gunning and other representatives from the board are appearing before the Oireachtas Health Committee to give an update on the building of the new hospital.

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The number of people set to receive the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) this week is 352,078 - an increase of just over 2,000 in the last seven days, according to the latest figures from the Department of Social Protection.

This week's payments will cost €104m, bringing the total cost of the PUP scheme since its inception last March to over €4.3bn.

The 352,000 PUP claimants do not include a further 203,172 people reported on the Live Register at the end of October.

Between PUP and Jobseeker's Benefit, a total of 555,250 claimants are totally dependent on the State for income support.

Today's figures also reveal that over the last seven days, 4,912 people closed their PUP claims, with two thirds of those (3,251) doing so because they were returning to work.

The sector with the highest number of PUP recipients is Accommodation and Food Service Activities (102,777), followed by Wholesale and Retail Trade (57,292), and Other Sectors, including hairdressers and beauty salons (31,273).

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said the current figure of over 352,000 PUP recipients represented an increase of over 145,000 since the start of October.

She acknowledged that the past few weeks had not been easy, and that people were tired and wanted life to get back to some normality.

"Later this week, Government hopes to be in a position to consider easing restrictions from early December, which will hopefully allow some people to return to work," Ms Humphreys said.

However, she stressed that in the meantime, as a society everyone must do everything to suppress the virus and significantly reduce the rate of transmission.

"By working together now and in the weeks ahead, we can all play our part in ensuring that families across the country will be able to come together and celebrate this Christmas in a meaningful way," she concluded.
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Today's figures also confirm that since March, 89,399 people have been medically certified to receive the Covid-19 Enhanced Illness Benefit.

The number of people currently receiving an Enhanced Illness Benefit payment is 2,296, with an increase in claimants recorded in every county over the last week.

On a geographical basis, claims have been highest in Dublin (24,607), followed by Cork (9,724), Galway (5,464), Kildare (4,320) and Meath (3,609).

The sectors with the greatest number of Enhanced Illness Benefit claims are Wholesale and Retail Trade (19,163), followed by Human Health and Social Work (16,381) and Manufacturing (12,356).

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Weekly increase of 2,000 in number of people on PUP

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The number of people set to receive the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) this week is 352,078 - an increase of just over 2,000 in the last seven days, according to the latest figures from the Department of Social Protection. This week's payments will cost €104m, bringing the total cost of the PUP scheme since its inception last March to over €4.3bn.

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Ireland’s UN SDGs 2019 - Report on Indicators for Goal 5 Gender Equality - CSO - Central Statistics Office

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Educational Attainment Thematic Report 2020

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Social Housing in Ireland 2019 - Analysis of Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) Scheme

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Global drive for equality in education for girls

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Global drive for equality in education for girls

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Increasing numbers of young girls in sub-Saharan Africa are at risk of being forced into marriages at as young as 12 years of age due to the economic pressures unleashed by Covid-19, government minister Colm Brophy has warned.

Irish Aid, the government's overseas development programme, has placed an emphasis in recent years on boosting girls' participation in education, helping to fund a series of international programmes to improve learning opportunities for marginalised and vulnerable children.

Ireland has committed €250 million to global education by 2024, with much of this money going towards programmes aimed at boosting girls' education in countries such as Zambia, Malawi, Uganda and Sierra Leone.

It pledged a further €6 million last year to Education Cannot Wait, a global fund hosted by Unicef which provides education in crisis settings such as refugee camps.

More than 130 million school-age girls are estimated not to be in education worldwide, with girls two and half times more likely to be out of school than boys. In the Sahel region of Africa, girls on average complete only four years of education.

Brophy, the Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora, said the economic pressures on families caused by the Covid-19 pandemic meant that girls in particular are in danger of being pulled out of education.

"In poorer societies in sub-Saharan Africa and in countries which we would work with, all the research shows that education primarily goes to boys over girls," he said.

"So if a family has become poorer due to the pandemic and has less access to work, then there is a real risk that the person who will lose out will be a young girl whose education will be cut short because she will either to be sent out to work or she'll be forced into an early marriage."

Girls as young as 12 can be forced into marriages, he said. "When you have a situation where education ends, then the pressure comes very quickly on young women who are still girls, they're children, and they are forced into marriages."

The government is examining how it can invest extra money to address the issue.

Brophy's comments come in the same month that the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a global think tank, once again ranked Ireland as the number one donor for delivering what it terms "principled aid".

ODI's annual index examines how 29 donor countries spend their foreign aid to pursue their long-term strategic interests. Ireland has ranked number one since the index began in 2013.

Brophy said Ireland's top ranking was a considerable source of satisfaction as it showed the country's overseas aid was being spent in the right way.

"We're not a huge country like the United States or China," he said. "We are a small country but we are now a small wealthy country, and it is really important that we use the money we have in a targeted way to deliver the most benefit. Through the work we've done on gender, I think we've really done something we can be proud of."

Ireland's overseas aid budget increased by €30 million in the recent budget which will see it reach €868 million next year.

Although this represents 0.32 per cent of Ireland's Gross National Income (GNI), it remains well short of the aim in the programme for the government of reaching the United Nations' target of 0.7 per cent of GNI by 2030.

Brophy said he believed Ireland could realistically reach the UN target but cautioned that the economic challenges the country was facing would have to be borne in mind.

"I think what's important is we've given a commitment in the current economic situation, in the next few years from when the government was formed, not to see a reduction in our development aid. And I think we'll look at it on a year-by-year basis depending on economic circumstances."

Last year, Ireland made 33 deployments of humanitarian experts from its Rapid Response Corps to support UN crisis operations in 16 countries, including Bangladesh, Cameroon, Colombia, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Palestine, South Sudan, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The experts tend to be in areas such as engineering, construction, sanitation and other professions which are vital for helping in the aftermath of a disaster.

"It's the exact opposite to the hero in a cape sort of thing. This is the quiet unsung hero who works away ,quietly delivering," Brophy said.

"But you know, bridges don't get rebuilt after a disaster and roads don't get reconstructed to allow access for food convoys without having people on the ground who have the necessary engineering skills to deliver that."

Ireland also deployed five consignments of emergency relief supplies from its stockpiles around the world last year, providing 261 metric tonnes of supplies such as emergency shelter, cooking and hygiene supplies to more than 30,000 households displaced by natural disasters, conflict and violence in Nigeria, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.

Irish Aid recently established a new unit to put climate change at the centre of all its decision making processes.

"We've put dealing with climate change issues at the heart of development aid. They shouldn't be separate, they should be linked, because in the real world, they're completely linked," Brophy said. "Everything is being climate proofed."

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Covid-19 could scupper global drive to educate girls | Business Post

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Increasing numbers of young girls in sub-Saharan Africa are at risk of being forced into marriages at as young as 12 years of age due to the economic pressures unleashed by Covid-19, government minister Colm Brophy has warned.

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Some local councils are paying private developers up to €400,000 for social housing units when the councils themselves can build them directly at half the price, Department of Housing figures suggest.

The figures provided by Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin show how much local councils paid last year for so-called turnkey purchases, which are bought directly from private developers for social housing tenants.

In several areas, the average cost of these acquisitions was nearly double the cost of the social housing units developed directly by the council. The figures do not contain detail about the size or spec of the units.

In Fingal County Council, the average cost of turnkey acquisitions in 2019 was €412,000 compared with €209,300 for the new builds delivered directly by the council. A similar differential was recorded in Dublin City Council where the average cost of turnkey purchases was €382,200 compared with€181,500 for its direct builds.

Cork City Council paid an average of €306,800 for its purchased units while those it built directly cost €266,300.

In Galway City, the average cost of turnkey acquisitions last year was €352,700 but there was no figure recorded for its direct builds.

The cost of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown's direct builds in 2019 was €201,700, but there was no figure for the cost of its turnkey purchases.

In 2018, they cost on average €396,900 compared to €239,900 for its direct builds that year.

In some local authority areas, such as Donegal, Kildare and Cork County, however, the difference in cost was only marginal and not financially significant.

Typically councils procure about two-thirds of their social housing needs from the private sector as turnkey acquisitions.

The department cautioned "that a range of dwelling types at various price ranges" were covered by the figures while noting that the cost of delivery can vary greatly depending on the type of development and the area involved.

Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin: Government policy should focus on increasing the direct delivery of social homes by local authorities. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins

However, Mr Ó Broin said the figures clearly showed that where the council was the lead developer it was much more cost effective.

"Therefore Government policy should focus on increasing the direct delivery of social homes by local authorities," he said.

He said the reason why councils were choosing turnkeys over direct development was because of the Government's "overly bureaucratic approval, tendering and value-for-money requirement" on local authority-led projects, which made it a much slower process.

"If we want more local authority-led developments we have to streamline the approval, tendering, value-for-money exercises that the departments impose [on local authorities]," he said, noting it was taking councils 18-24 months to begin construction on proposed developments.

Santry site

The figures come as plans to build more than 850 homes, including 253 social housing units, on one of the largest sites owned by Dublin City Council collapsed earlier this week after councillors refused to approve the deal with developer Glenveagh Homes.

The deal would have seen 853 homes built on the site at Oscar Traynor Road in Santry, 428 of which would have been sold privately by Glenveagh with 253 bought by the council for social housing. The remaining 172 were to be sold to low- and middle-income workers qualifying for the upcoming affordable purchase scheme.

In Budget 2021, the Government set aside €3.3 billion for the delivery of housing programmes, which includes funding for 12,750 social homes next year, 9,500 from direct builds.

The build target includes the delivery of 5,250 new homes by local authorities, 2,950 by approved housing bodies and 1,300 new homes through Part V acquisitions, where developers set aside 10 per cent of their developments for social housing.

Several local councils have found themselves in the spotlight over the prices being paid to developers for Part V acquisitions. Donnybrook Partnership on Eglinton Road in Dublin 4 plans to sell 14 apartments - as part of its Part V obligation - to Dublin City Council for €9.18 million. This puts an indicative price tag of €762,916 on each of the nine two-bedroom apartments and €469,177 on each of the five one-bedroom apartments, and for what should be substantially discounted housing units.

The Minister's figures show the average costs of direct social housing builds in several local councils fell between 2018 and 2019. In Dún Laoghaire, they decreased from €239,900 to €201,700 while in Limerick they fell from €212,500 to €209,100.

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Local councils can build social housing at half the cost of private developers

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Some local councils are paying private developers up to €400,000 for social housing units when the councils themselves can build them directly at half the price, Department of Housing figures suggest.

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Billions of euro being poured into the economy by the Government in the face of the Covid pandemic needs to be "clearly tracked" to avoid "inefficient spending", the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has warned.

The PBO - an independent unit within the Oireachtas - published its review of last month's landmark Budget yesterday.

It noted that €16.5bn of the spending for 2020 is attributable to the pandemic.

"In 2021, €6.4bn in Covid-19-related spending has been allocated, with a further €2.1bn set aside in a Covid Contingency Reserve and €3.4bn in the Recovery Fund," said the PBO.

"Pandemic spending should be clearly tracked, subject to performance measurement," it added. "If not, the use of voted monies, approved by Dáil Éireann, may be sub-optimal. In particular, the absence of (or poor quality) performance information increases the risk that inefficient spending will occur and limits the ability of Parliament (or others) to scrutinise it in a timely and useful way."

The PBO has also cautioned that the State's reliance on corporation tax poses an "inherent risk" to the public finances.

It noted that corporation tax receipts are expected to comprise 21.7pc of total tax revenue this year, compared to a long-term average of about 14pc.

"The strength of corporation tax receipts has been a key factor in terms of the overall resilience of tax receipts during the pandemic," said the PBO in its report yesterday. "However, a substantial and sudden reduction in corporation tax revenue would pose significant fiscal challenges."

The PBO has also warned that the predictions presented in the Budget last month did not take account of the Level 5 restrictions that were imposed across the country two weeks ago.

"The baseline scenario on which Budget 2021 was based does not account for the impact of restrictions of this magnitude," said the PBO.

Before the current lockdown was initiated, gross voted spending for 2020 was expected to be just over €87bn. Gross voted spending for 2021 is expected to be €84.4bn, with an additional €3.4bn in the Recovery Fund.

The PBO noted that the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) is set to expire at the end of next March, but that the Government pledged that a similar scheme would be required in place until end of 2021.

"The successor scheme to the EWSS as announced in the Budget should deliver a more targeted support," the PBO added.

It also urged targeted spending for helping businesses hit by the pandemic to survive.

"Forward planning can help ensure that Exchequer spending can be targeted in future and directed to enterprises or sectors that can illustrate viability notwithstanding the pandemic, or those that are likely to be viable post-pandemic," said the PBO.

Online Editors

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Budget Office calls for tracking of Covid spending

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Billions of euro being poured into the economy by the Government in the face of the Covid pandemic needs to be "clearly tracked" to avoid "inefficient spending", the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has warned. The PBO - an independent unit within the Oireachtas - published its review of last month's landmark Budget yesterday.

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Providing helicopter money for the people

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Providing helicopter money for the people

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What can we do now to prevent this crisis getting worse? What can Irish policy-makers do to prevent company closures, militating against more mass redundancies? How can we buy time? Buying time is a critical way of looking at the crisis because in a crisis you run out of time, not money. It's essential that actions we take today are designed to ensure that a temporary crisis doesn't become permanent chaos.

The good news is that this will pass; the better news is we can do something to cushion the blow; the even better news is that it demands only courageous thinking and action. The bad news is that, up to now, there is little evidence of courageous thinking, and that includes the European Central Bank's €750 billion mega-intervention.

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David McWilliams: The most critical objective is to keep businesses afloat

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What can we do now to prevent this crisis getting worse? What can Irish policy-makers do to prevent company closures, militating against more mass redundancies? How can we buy time? Buying time is a critical way of looking at the crisis because in a crisis you run out of time, not money.

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The average weekly earnings of workers in the Republic rose by 3.7 per cent to €797.83 in the third quarter compared to the same time last year, Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show.

However the rise masks major compositional changes in certain sectors triggered by the coronavirus crisis.

The headline figure reflects the earnings of those remaining in employment, including those supported by the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) and the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS).

It does not reflect those who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.

The weekly earnings of workers in the worst-hit accommodation and food services sector rose by nearly 4 per cent to €391, though their earnings were down when compared to the previous quarter.

Hospitality workers are the lowest paid workers in the State, but the sector has the highest rate of part-time staff, which anchors the average.

Their average earnings are roughly 50 per cent below the national average and a third of IT workers, who had the highest weekly earnings (€1,283) of any sector in the third quarter.

Another hard-hit sector was arts and entertainment, which saw weekly earnings rise by 7.5 per cent to €531 in the third quarter, but this was down nearly 9 per cent on the previous quarter.

The CSO's latest earnings data show workers in the transportation and storage sector suffered the biggest annual decline in weekly earnings, which fell 6 per cent to €783.

"When considering the change in earnings, it should be noted that there may be a compositional effect due to the significant changes in employment in certain sectors," the CSO said.

"The change in average weekly earnings may be impacted to some degree by those employments that have left or joined a sector having lower/higher average earnings than those employments that remained in the sector in both quarters," it added.

Average hourly earnings increased by 3.9 per cent, rising from €23.53 to €24.44 between the third quarter of last year and this year.

Average weekly paid hours, however, decreased by 0.3 per cent, from 32.7 to 32.6.

Average hourly total labour costs were €27.05 in the third quarter of 2020, a decrease of 1 per cent from the value of €27.31 one year previously.

Average weekly earnings increased by 2.3 per cent across the public sector and by 3.9 per cent across the private sector in the year to the third quarter.

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Weekly earnings rise but figures mask Covid-19 impact

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The average weekly earnings of workers in the Republic rose by 3.7 per cent to €797.83 in the third quarter compared to the same time last year, Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show. However the rise masks major compositional changes in certain sectors triggered by the coronavirus crisis.

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In 1929, Virginia Woolf wrote that a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. She put the amount at £500 a year - about €37,000 in today's money.

In Ireland, an artist looking for financial support is most likely to rely on State funding channelled through bodies such as the Arts Council, Culture Ireland, Local Authorities or Screen Ireland.

Back in 2016, Sally Rooney was awarded an Arts Council Emerging Writer bursary to support her while editing her debut novel Conversations with Friends, which went on to be subject to a seven-party auction for the publishing rights. Rooney says, "It would be difficult to overstate how crucial this period of editing was in the development of the novel." Rooney's second novel, Normal People, was published in September 2018, the TV series based on the novel was a 2020 cultural phenomenon, and the rest is history.

Such publicly funded financial supports provide artists with the time and resources to think, research, reflect and create by releasing them from financial commitments. It is literally "buying time" for the artist. It's hard to see where such support could be sourced from anywhere else but the State.

This year, in response to Covid-19, the Government significantly increased its support for arts, culture and live events and Budget 2021 continues this trend. So it is understandable people may ask why should the arts get so much support, when so many sectors get little or no public funding.

Money spent on the creative industries is vital and entirely justified in both cultural and economic terms

Money spent on the creative industries is vital and entirely justified in both cultural and economic terms - the number of people who work in the creative industries, (the wider arts sector alone supports almost 55,000 jobs), their importance in supporting our tourism, hospitality and inward-investment programmes, how they matter to local communities and economies across the country, and the way in which our creative output impacts on how the rest of the world views and engages with us.

Empathetic individuals

But people's personal experience of the arts is also something of great value and importance. The arts move us, comfort us and help us to interpret life itself - they are both powerful and beautiful.

A 2016 UK Arts and Humanities Research Council report, Understanding the Value of Arts and Culture, considered the value of arts and culture to individuals and society. It didn't just look at high art, but also at commercial film, music and books, at young people getting together in bands, at amateur drama, choirs and book clubs, as well as those engaging in prisons, hospitals and nursing homes.

It found that cultural engagement produces engaged citizens, helping to shape reflective and empathetic individuals, giving them a greater understanding of themselves and their lives, and an appreciation of the diversity of human experience and cultures. This research is UK-based, but I see no reason to think that Irish engagement with the arts would produce significantly different results. Comprehensive research has also confirmed the individual and social value of the arts in the production of health and wellbeing.

For me, a sector that delivers such valuable outcomes is a special case and worth supporting. Ireland needs its citizens to be engaged, empathetic, and healthy, now more than ever.

But why does that mean that the State has to financially support the arts? Why don't artists and writers and film-makers just sell their work and support themselves from their earnings during their reflective, creative times?

Most are freelance, moving between self-employment, PAYE employment and periods of no employment at all

The answer lies in the insecure employment and low and irregular earnings of people in the creative sectors. Most are freelance, moving between self-employment, PAYE employment and periods of no employment at all. They experience income insecurity, cash-flow problems, even poverty - and this before Covid-19. In 2016, Visual Artists Ireland research found that 76 per cent of those surveyed were earning less than €10,000 per year from creative and non-creative work. A 2018 Theatre Forum report found that one-third of artists and creative practitioners in the performing arts earned less than the 2018 minimum wage of €9.55 per hour.

Financial insecurity

Financial stress impedes creativity. The pressure to "get a real job" to earn a living makes it difficult to find time and energy for the artistic and creative work. Many who do engage full time in low-paid or non-paid artistic and creative work end up putting the rest of life "on hold", in order to prioritise artistic or creative activity.

The disruptive effect of Covid 19 has made such financial insecurity a condition of life for almost every artist and cultural worker. This is why, in Life Worth Living, the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce report, our key recommendation proposes piloting a three-year universal basic income scheme for the arts, culture, audio-visual and live performance and events sectors. UBI is not payment for artistic and creative work; rather it recognises the precarious nature of the sector, and people's need for financial security. With UBI, there is no need to apply for social welfare when there is no money coming in from work. UBI increases freedom to practise all kinds of art and creative activities, including work that is of deep personal interest, or of direct social benefit. It also encourages entrepreneurship, as people in receipt of it can take on work and earn taxable income on top of their UBI.

UBI will not automatically create a greater appreciation of artistic and creative work. But it would help to give it the support and recognition it deserves. In this time of crisis, UBI will keep the sector intact and avoid an exodus of talent and experience. At the best of times, public funding for arts and culture sustains the sector. In these difficult times, it ensures its very survival.

As we emerge from under the shadow of coronavirus, art, music, drama, dance, film, and live events can give us back some of that enhancement and vitality of life that has been stifled during severe social restriction.

Barack Obama put it succinctly: "The arts are what makes life worth living . . . They aren't extras."
Clare Duignan is chair of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce and is a director of The Irish Times

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Art is key to national health and merits financial support

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In 1929, Virginia Woolf wrote that a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. She put the amount at £500 a year - about €37,000 in today's money.

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If everyone in Ireland was given €752 a month, what would it do to the economy? Would it result in more people 'dropping out' or would it lead to greater entrepreneurial activity? Frances Coppola* examines the subject.

Richard Branson is a fan of Universal Basic Income. He believes it gives people the freedom to be more creative and start businesses. Finland, the first European country to start a UBI experiment, is giving 2,000 of its citizens €560 every month for two years. Five months into the experiment, the people receiving the money reported less stress, a greater desire to work and more time to pursue business ideas.

However, would it work like this in Ireland?

"Universal basic income" has been the stuff of dreams for centuries. The idea that everyone should have, as of right, the necessary means to live regardless of their capacity to work has attracted many a philosopher and political economist, including the great Thomas Paine, for whom a basic income was the foundation of the "rights of man". Experiments with some form of basic income have been conducted in countries ranging from the United States to Namibia, with varying degrees of success.

One of the first such experiments, the UK's "Speenhamland" system, was abandoned in 1834 after being blamed for destroying work incentives, depressing wages and encouraging "the poor to breed". Speenhamland is still cited as evidence that a universal basic income cannot work.

More recent experiments, such as the pilot study in Manitoba, Canada, in the 1970s, appeared to show potential benefits from a properly constructed UBI that could outweigh the problems, but they were too small and local to attract widespread interest. Radical reformers, notably in the Green movement, have strongly argued in favour of UBI, but they have mostly been regarded as occupying the weird fringe. For many, the idea that anyone should be given money with no strings attached was merely laughable.

But now, universal basic income may be an idea whose time has come. As wages stagnate in developed countries and in-work benefits creep ever higher up the income scale, governments are looking for ways of making their welfare systems simpler, less expensive and more rewarding for hard working people. Even more significantly, as the technological revolution gathers pace, entrepreneurs and business people are calling for people to be provided with the basic means to live.

What do business people think of UBI?

The business community sees UBI in two ways. Some look to UBI to provide an income for those threatened with a workless future as robots displace humans from traditional jobs. This view of UBI has been criticised as "welfare for capitalists", subsidising low-wage, insecure work and removing from businesses any responsibility for the welfare of those disrupted by technology. But ending "toil" has been a goal of the human invention since the dawn of time: if there is no need for people to work since robots can do it for them, why should people not be paid to do nothing? The philosopher Bertrand Russell had little time for those who glorify work for its own sake:
Modern technique has made it possible for leisure, within limits, to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right evenly distributed throughout the community. The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.
Anthropologist David Graeber argues that there are an awful lot of jobs that are simply not necessary. If UBI enabled people to stop doing pointless jobs just to earn money, and turn their attention to caring, creativity, and innovation, surely the world would be a better and happier place.

But there is another business view of UBI. It could encourage entrepreneurialism. Here, for example, is programmer and economics writer Steve Waldman explaining how "venture capital for the people" (aka UBI) could help to counter "secular stagnation":
The state could provide venture capital to the people. If ordinary citizens had a small but reliable annuity, too modest to live comfortably but enough to prevent destitution, then at the margin, we'd expect people who currently seek or accept unfulfilling, underpaid work to opt for entrepreneurship, or education, or art, or childrearing, or just hold out for a better gig.
A support system for entrepreneurs

Business folk from a wide range of industries have embraced the concept of UBI as a support system for budding entrepreneurs. Here, for example, is Virgin's Richard Branson:
[I see] the sense of self-esteem that universal basic income could provide to people. The hope is that policies like these can help people struggling just to survive and allow them to get on their feet, be entrepreneurial and be more creative.
The UK's Royal Society of Arts (RSA) has strongly backed UBI because of its potential to encourage entrepreneurialism, skills development, and creativity. However, the economist Robert Seamans warns that protecting entrepreneurs from destitution when their ideas fail creates a kind of moral hazard that could make venture capitalists less willing to risk their own funds. He doubts if UBI would prove more effective than existing support systems.

The latest experiments in California and Kenya

Despite scepticism from Seamans and others, technology firms are enthusiastically backing UBI, not only philosophically but financially. Y Combinator is running a universal basic income pilot study in Oakwood, California.

And the private foundation of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is helping to fund GiveDirectly's UBI experiment in Kenya, a 12-year research project aiming to provide definitive evidence that a long-term UBI improves incentives to work and increases entrepreneurial activity, as well as enhancing education, health, and nutrition among its recipients.

GiveDirectly's research into the effectiveness of unconditional cash transfers to the poor has so far shown impressive results. It says that for each $1,000 provided, the recipient's earnings increase by $270, assets increase by $430 and nutrition expenditure increases by $330. Recipients have started new businesses sent their kids to school and made vital improvements to their homes. Fears that the recipients would spend the money on alcohol, cigarettes, and crime appear to be completely unfounded.

However, what works for very poor people in a developing country might not work so well in a developed country where people face displacement by technology. The Omidyar Foundation, therefore, says it will support additional UBI studies "to diversify the growing body of research across markets, conditions, and formats".

UBI studies are already under way in several developed countries. Finland is piloting a basic income of €560 a month for unemployed people, which - unlike existing unemployment benefit - is not withdrawn when they start work. Four months in, scheme participants are already reporting reduced stress levels and greater incentive to work. Other pilot studies are proceeding in the Netherlands, Canada and Uganda. Scotland's largest city, Glasgow, is in the early stages of designing a UBI experiment along the lines of the RSA's model.

Previous experiments with basic income have tended to occur at times of high unemployment and fast technological change. They have always foundered due to financial pressures and moral fears. We are now in another period of technological disruption, which this time threatens the jobs of billions. Concurrently, we have more studies into the feasibility of UBI than ever before, and early results are encouraging. Perhaps the outcome of these studies will enable us at last to conquer our fears and embrace UBI as an essential driver of innovation and creativity in our brave new technological world.
*This is an opinion piece and all views expressed are those of the author.
About the author: Frances Coppola is a Forbes contributor, a Financial Times blogger and author of the the finance and economics blog. A former banker, she is also a fantastic singer.
Images from Shutterstock.

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Universal Basic Income in Ireland | Think Business

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Richard Branson is a fan of Universal Basic Income. He believes it gives people the freedom to be more creative and start businesses. Finland, the first European country to start a UBI experiment, is giving 2,000 of its citizens €560 every month for two years.

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Jobseeker Supports

If you are unemployed you may qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit (JB) which is based on your social insurance record. A fundamental qualifying condition for Jobseekers Benefit is that you must be available for full time work.

If you are unemployed and do not qualify for Jobseekers Benefit you may qualify for Jobseeker's Allowance (JA) which is based on your weekly means

Supplementary Welfare Allowance is run by the Health Service Executive through Community Welfare Officers at local offices of the Health Service Executive. The Supplementary Welfare Allowance Scheme consists of a basic payment, called Supplementary Welfare Allowance, is a weekly allowance paid to people who do not have enough means to meet their needs and those of their qualified adult or any qualified children.

If you are having difficulty paying your rent and you are getting a social welfare or Health Service Executive payment, you may qualify for a Rent Supplement.

If you are having difficulty paying your mortgage and you are getting a social welfare or Health Service Executive payment, you may qualify for a Mortgage Interest Supplement.

Back to Work

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and FÁS provide various supports for people with disabilities and for employers. See our information leaflet for more details.

The Government announced the introduction of a new National Internship Scheme as part of its Jobs Initiative, which was published on 10 May 2011. The National Internship Scheme will have 5,000 places and it will be the first initiative operated under the National Employment and Entitlements Service. The scheme became operational on 1 July 2011

The Work Placement Programme is a Government supported programme that brings employers and the unemployed together for a nine month work experience placement.

If you are getting a jobseeker's payment for at least 12 months and take up a job for at least 30 hours a week, which you expect to last at least 12 months, you may qualify for Revenue Job Assist.

This scheme provides for continued payment, for up to 13 weeks, of increase for a qualified child (IQC), where payable at the full rate, to certain persons who have been receiving jobseeker's payments (JA/JB) for a year or more and who take up full-time employment for at least 4 weeks.

The Part-Time Job Incentive Scheme allows certain long-term unemployed people to take up a part-time job and receive a special weekly allowance instead of their jobseeker's payment.

This is a weekly payment for unemployed people who set up their own business. It allows you to keep a portion of your social welfare payment for 2 years and is not subject to tax or Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI)

The Short-Term Enterprise Allowance (STEA) provides support to people who have lost their job and want to start their own business. To qualify you must be getting Jobseeker's Benefit. There is no qualifying period, which means you do not need to be getting Jobseeker's Benefit for a certain period of time. However, you will not qualify if you are getting Jobseeker's Benefit and working part-time.

The aims of the Rural Social Scheme (RSS) are to provide income support for farmers and fisherpersons who are currently in receipt of specified Social Welfare payments, and to provide certain services of benefit to rural communities. The RSS allows low-income farmers and fisherpersons who are unable to earn an adequate living from their farm holding/fishing, to earn a supplementary income.

While responsibility for the operation of the RSS rests with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, it is managed at a local level, on our behalf, by the Local Development Companies(LDCs) and in the Gaeltacht by Údarás na Gaeltachta (the Implementing Bodies). Participants under RSS are employees of their Implementing Body.

The provision of Tús was announced in Budget 2011 and launched by Minister Ó Cuív on 21st December 2010. The aims of Tús are to provide short-term, quality work opportunities for those who are unemployed and to provide certain services of benefit to communities.

Educational Supports for Jobseekers

You can avail of a full-time second or third level course, VTOS or an educational training and development course, and still receive a jobseekers payment. If you are not eligible for any of these options or if you don't wish to do a full-time course, you can attend a part-time course

On June 1st 2010, The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan T.D. announced that 6,589 training places will be made available to the unemployed under the Labour Market Activation Fund, 2010. A further 5,00 places were announced on August 5th, 2010.

If you would like to return to education, and wish to pursue a second level course of education at any community, comprehensive, secondary or vocational school or a third level course at any university, third level college or institution or you may qualify for Back to Education Allowance (BTEA).

If you are getting a jobseeker's payment and your choice of course is not covered under the Back to Education Allowance Scheme, you may keep your jobseeker's payment while doing a course of education, training or development. It must be clear that the course will enhance your employment prospects

Your local partnership company offers a range of supports, including information, training and assistance about finding work.

Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI)

'Credits' are automatically given for any period you get Jobseeker's Benefit. 'Credits' may also be given for periods of Jobseeker's Allowance or if you participate in an education or part-time work scheme for unemployed people.

If you are sick or unemployed, you may qualify for 'credits' even if you are not getting Illness Benefit or an unemployment payment. This can happen, for example, if you:

do not have enough PRSI contributions to qualify for benefit;

have used up your benefit, or

are disqualified from getting unemployment payments because of a trade dispute.

If you are unemployed, you may be entitled to sign for 'credits' at your local Social Welfare Office.

In order to get 'credits' while you are ill and unfit for work, you must send regular medical evidence as long as your illness lasts to the:

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection
P.O. Box 1650
Dublin 1
or hand in your medical certificate at your local Social Welfare Office

The Employer Job (PRSI) Incentive Scheme exempts employers from liability to pay their share of PRSI for certain employees for 12 months.

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If you are unemployed you may qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit (JB) which is based on your social insurance record. A fundamental qualifying condition for Jobseekers Benefit is that you must be available for full time work.

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Industries whose operations are more globalized (and particularly those that rely on Chinese inputs for production) were most exposed to initial supply chain disruption due to COVID-19. This was the case for precision instruments, machinery, automotive and communication equipment ( UNCTAD, 2020).

Given its non-essential nature, the fashion industry faces significant risks. Indeed, in times of COVID-19, as consumers around the world remain in lockdown, they no longer need new products. This industry is characterised by a highly integrated global supply chain.

In it, many developing countries play the role of the supplier of low-cost inputs. This article highlights some of challenges and concerns that some of these countries face, many of which are dependent on textile and garment exports.
The textile industry supply chains, trade logistics and developing countries
The accession of China to the WTO (2001) and the expiry of the WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (which ended a 10-year trade regime managed through quotas) on 1 st January 2005 contributed to making China an important centre of textile and clothing global value chains (GVCs).

These two developments led to shift apparel production and sourcing (by globalized retailers and producers) to China and other Asian countries because of low labour costs ( UNCTAD, 2005), following the cost-reducing logic of GVCs.

As wages gradually rose in China and Chinese plants moved to produce higher-value goods, countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam, with lower wages costs started attracting factories to relocate their production from China.

At the global level, China remains an important supplier of fashion goods (as shown in Figure 1) but has also become an important consumer of this industry.
Figure 1: Top 20 exporting countries of fashion goods*
(share in global exports), estimated TEU 2019
* SITC, 2-digit categories including: Textile fibres, Textiles & made-up articles, Clothing & accessories
(Source: MDS Transmodal, March 2020)

Major exporters of fashion goods for whom exports in the sector represent a significant share of export earnings are shown in Figure 2. Consequently, the Asian country most badly affected by the disease outbreak could be Bangladesh where circa 85% of its exports include fashion goods, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Top 20 exporting countries of fashion goods*
(share in total country exports), estimated TEU 2019
* SITC, 2-digit categories including: Textile fibres, Textiles & made-up articles, Clothing & accessories
(Source: MDS Transmodal, March 2020)

Given the globalized nature of the industry, companies and retailers must transport their goods and raw materials across many countries. Besides China, other countries play an important role as key hubs around which trade of fashion products takes place.

This is the case for the United States (as the most important retail market), and some European countries (such as Belgium, Germany, France and UK), with ports such as Rotterdam and Antwerp featuring prominently in this trade. ( CO, 2018).

From a logistics point of view, the textile, apparel and garments industry is considered a time-sensitive industry. Irregularities in making goods reach a particular place at a specified location on time can lead to reduced (or no) profits for the textile owner.

In addition, clothing collections change quickly: their lifecycle is short (as perishable products) and their commercialization is characterized by strong seasonal peaks. In this sense, textile logistics are characterized by small stocks and short delivery times.

These goods and raw materials are usually transported using a combination of land, sea, and air. Within this trade logistics context, strong multimodal interlinkages are key to ensure Just in Time delivery.

E-commerce developments have further accentuated time-related logistics requirements, such as next day delivery, as well as the capacity of handling a large volume of returns and offering the possibility for manufacturers and dealers to check the location of their articles at any time.
Emerging concerns related to COVID19 from the perspective of developing countries Supply chain disruption: the reduced demand perspective
The COVID-19 outbreak led to production stops in China first, followed by closures of shops elsewhere around the world.

For the moment, European and American retailers, the two destination markets for this sector, are still cancelling their orders. Cancelled orders are a cause for concern in many sourcing countries.

As shippers are increasingly invoking 'force majeure' clauses within their contracts to halt their payments, on 8 April, the Sustainable Textile of Asian Region (STAR) Network, the body, which brings together representatives of the producing associations from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Myanmar, Pakistan and Vietnam, released a joint statement on the issue.

It urged brands and retailers to consider the impact that their purchasing decisions during the coronavirus pandemic could have on workers and small businesses in the supply chain and, therefore, to honour their contracts with their suppliers.

In their statement, the STAR Network invited global businesses to "support business partners in the supply chain as much as possible, and aim at a long-term strategy of business continuity, supply chain unity and social sustainability."
Supply chain disruption: the reduced production perspective
the evolution of local epidemiologic situation in key sourcing countries, has impacted workforce availability and production, as well as multimodal logistics underpinning global value chains.

One of the concerns in this respect is that production of fashion goods could be moved away to other sourcing countries that are resuming activities faster in the Asian region or that are closer to retailers to diversify their supply chain risk.

Governments in developed countries around the world are implementing unprecedented actions to ease the effect on their economies from measures put in place to limit the spread of the pandemic.

Most developing countries do not have similar financial means, health systems or social safety nets to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and its economic impacts.

In this context, various assistance packages have been announced by IMF, the World Bank and others with a view to supporting economies, including emerging market economies.
Transport connectivity impact
Observable changes derived from the pandemic concerning maritime transport networks include, for example a reduction in service frequency (blank sailings and idle fleet) and changes in routing affecting particularly Asia-Northern Europe services, a key axis in the trade of fashion goods.

Shipping lines are reducing the number of port calls in the maritime services they offer to adapt to declining demand and cargo imbalances ( JOC, 2020).

This is likely to affect the liner shipping connectivity of sourcing countries both in terms of intercontinental as well as intra-regional feeder calls and, if this situation persists, could make economic recovery even harder.

The fashion industry is undoubtedly under pressure in these uncertain times. Depending on the role that countries play in the supply chain, building resilience could entail different needs and approaches.

Prospects appear particularly bleak for low-cost sourcing countries that are highly dependent on textile and garments exports for revenues, concurrently faced with the challenge of limited financial means and less developed health systems and social safety nets to cope with the socio-economic effects of the pandemic.

In the short-term, lockdowns around the world have thrown a spotlight on risks associated with high supply chain interconnectedness and challenges associated with global sourcing.

This has also had an impact on trade logistics, as the glue that holds global value chains together. Observable changes introduced in maritime transport services to cope with reduced demand and cargo imbalances illustrate this.

The key question is what will this mean in the longer term, after surviving this unplanned humanitarian and financial crisis, particularly for the weakest links of the chain?

Driven by growing pressure towards more environmentally friendly lifestyles, the fashion industry was already confronted, before the pandemic, with increased concerns regarding its sustainability footprint, particularly consumption patterns associated with 'fast fashion' (increasing levels of expenditures and waste disposal) and associated production patterns (workplace conditions, environmental impact of textiles processing).

Will the current crisis accelerate a transformation in consumption patterns, inducing structural changes to the industry supply chain?

For example, could it lead to generalize new models such as 'seasonless designs' or lead to shorter value chains (i.e. increased local or regional sourcing)? Certainly, moving away from the "just in time" or "made- to- order" business models will have an impact on trading and transport patterns.

[i] Stopford, Martin (2020). Coronavirus, Climate Change & Smart Shipping: three maritime scenarios 2020 - 2050.
Contact:
Antonella Teodoro ¦ Senior Consultant ¦ MDS Transmodal ¦ [email protected]
Luisa Rodriguez ¦ Economic Affairs Officer ¦ UNCTAD Trade Logistics Branch ¦ [email protected]

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Textile and garment supply chains in times of COVID-19: challenges for developing countries

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In the first quarter of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic led to a 3% drop in global trade values. COVID-19 could trigger the biggest economic contraction since World War II, affecting all industries from finance to hospitality.As there is significant uncertainty about how the epidemiological and economic situation will evolve, assessing the duration and the gravity of the pandemic seems like an impossible task.

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Gerard Turley NUIG

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We all know about the Local Property Tax (LPT). Indeed, this time last year, the government yet again deferred the revaluation date for the tax, and by doing so, avoided the inevitable increases in liabilities for owners of residential properties. Aside from this headline, there is much we don't know about our LPT (and may not want to know but that's for a different day!) This is a list of facts about the LPT that you may not know, but may find interesting or surprising.

(1) How local is it anyway?

Although it is a local tax in the strict meaning of the definition of a local tax (one where local councils have rate-setting powers and, in this case, the discretion to increase or decrease the base rate by 15%), it is the central or national government that decides everything else, that is, its introduction, tax rate, base and valuation, and collection vis-à-vis Revenue.

(2) Where does the money go?

Not all of the revenue from the tax stays in the local administrative area from where it is collected. Some of it is used to fund financially weaker local councils (see point 5), other local authorities with smaller economic and revenue bases. This is a sensitive and controversial issue for urban areas and especially the local authorities in Dublin.

From RTÉ One's Prime Time, Mattie McGrath and Paul McAuliffe debate the not-so-local property tax in 2017.

(3) What's the money spent on?

Not all of the LPT revenue pays for recurring current or day-to-day expenditure on local public services and some of it is used to fund capital spending on roads and housing. €77m of the €500m LPT allocation in the 2019 budgets was for the capital budget.

(4) Does this mean that councils are coining it in?

It's not an additional source of revenue for local councils, as it replaced another source of local government revenue, namely, central government general purpose grants. General purpose grants from central government peaked in 2008, at €1bn. Annual LPT receipts amount to about half that, at just less than €500m.

(5) Are all councils equal?

20% of the LPT receipts are used as an equalisation fund, so well-disposed (in terms of the number of properties and their valuations) local councils partly fund poorer local councils, instead of the alternative where this equalisation funding comes directly from central government. Of course, this may be a moot point as in the end it all comes from the taxpayer.
From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe on why changes to the Local Property Tax were to be deferred in 2019
(6) How much cash does the tax actually bring in?

The Local Property Tax raises a relatively small amount of revenue, at less than one percent of total government tax revenue. This share or percentage will change in 2020 due to falling revenues arising from the coronavirus lockdown.

(7) How does it compare to other local council taxes?

In terms of the share of total revenue income for local councils, it is the smallest at 8%, with commercial rates (31%), charges and fees (29%) and central government specific purpose grants (32%) accounting for the remainder (per 2018 figures).

(8) So commercial rates are huge then?

Commercial rates are a business and property tax and raise almost four times the revenue that LPT raises. Although this will change because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the lockdown and the impact of rates actually paid, tax revenue from residential properties is still much lower than tax revenue from commercial properties.
From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, chief executive of Dublin City Council Owen Keegan responds to calls for a freeze on commercial rates in the city due to the Covid-19 crisis.
(9) When will the tax change?

Although the owner of the residential property's liability may change from year to year, this depends on whether your local council decides to vary the base rate. Annually, the majority of councils did not use this local power until 2020. Again, this may change given the very different economic circumstances. We will know more by September when councils are required to inform Revenue of their LPT rate for the next financial year.

(10) Are Dubliners subsiding the rest of the country?

The four Dublin local authorities have cut the LPT rate every year since 2015, amounting to a gain for taxpayers (albeit very small for most owners of residential properties) but a loss to council income, and revenue foregone that was not available to pay for local services. Amounting to almost €150m between 2015 and 2019, this is equivalent to a full year's spending by all 31 local authorities on street cleaning and litter management.
From RTÉ Radio 1's This Week, should Dublin homeowners be paying more in local property taxes?
Although some of this detail may change in 2020 for reasons outlined (namely the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic), the essential features will not change. The LPT was designed during the last economic crisis, and allowed the government to widen the tax base and to tax wealth (in the form of property) while at the same time provide a new and stable source of income to local government.

While Revenue and the government of the time deserve praise for this (unlike the debacle over water charges) the current crisis provides a new government with an opportunity to reform the LPT, and not just in terms of property revaluations for LPT purposes! Whereas this element of the LPT dominates the media headlines - not surprisingly so given the impact on LPT bills for taxpayers - other features of the LPT are equally important for policymakers and citizens, as our national politicians thrash out a new social contract in advance of a programme for government.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ

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10 things you may not know about the Local Property Tax

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We all know about the Local Property Tax (LPT). Indeed, this time last year, the government yet again deferred the revaluation date for the tax, and by doing so, avoided the inevitable increases in liabilities for owners of residential properties.

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Is Irish Tax Policy now a Human Rights Issue

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Is Irish Tax Policy now a Human Rights Issue

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Thirty-one years ago this month, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A core international human rights treaty, it set key standards for children's rights and how governments must work to vindicate them.

Ratified by Ireland and more than 120 countries, signatory states are bound by the obligations within the treaty and compliance is assessed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child every five years.

In a landmark decision earlier this month, the committee confirmed that their current review of Ireland will, for the first time, consider the country's role in facilitating tax avoidance and whether it undermines the ability of developing countries to raise revenue and guarantee the rights of children.

The committee, which is composed of a number of independent children's rights specialists, reached their decision to include taxation as an issue having considered submissions made by civil society groups and academics - including from a coalition of Irish and international NGOs, including Christian Aid.

While recommendations from the committee are non-binding, politically they could see Ireland forced to adopt a more holistic approach to developing tax policy- including consideration of its human rights implications.

The decision also has the potential to change the way tax competition between countries is assessed.

While the EU has already made the case that Ireland's aggressive tax policies are undermining competition and the EU Single Market, the UN will now examine its human rights implications, acknowledging that the impact of tax policy is not limited to national borders but has far wider impact.

Politically, this is an important shift, echoing what development organisations and experts have been saying for decades. Under international law, Ireland is already obliged to ensure it avoids actions that may foreseeably and negatively impact another country's ability to honour its human rights obligations, but in terms of tax policy, this has largely been ignored.

Previous Christian Aid research has shown that Irish tax practices can be deeply damaging for developing countries and undermine a fundamental human rights principle, that of international cooperation.

For example, in 2018 Ireland signed a new tax treaty with Ghana, going against the advice of the Department of Foreign Affairs that the effect of such treaties is that capital flows from developing to developed nations.

Documents released under Freedom of Information showed that Ireland then aggressively negotiated a halving of the withholding tax rate that Ghana could apply on royalties to Ireland. As Ireland is Ghana's largest source of foreign investment, this greatly undermines Ghana's ability to generate resources to pay for essential services, like healthcare and education.

On completion of the negotiations, the relevant government minister was forced to apologise for misleading the Dail, having claimed that Ghana had approached Ireland seeking a treaty, when in fact the opposite was true. This is a process likely to be repeated, as Ireland expands its network of tax treaties with a specific focus on low and middle-income countries.

The research also showed that Ireland's extremely generous tax breaks afforded to companies onshoring intellectual property is starting to impact on African and Latin American countries. In 2016, for the first time, figures from the Central Statistics Office showed significant amounts of Intellectual Property-derived revenue flowing from those countries into Ireland.

These tax breaks have played a role in attracting multinationals into Ireland and the tax they have contributed has been an important component of the Irish government's ability to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. But we cannot ignore the reality that some of this revenue originates in countries who have much weaker healthcare systems and resources to deal with the virus than we do.

These are the issues that will be examined by the UN when the Irish government travels to Geneva next year to defend its position.

How can Ireland reconcile its role in facilitating tax avoidance, with our commendable history of aid, and indeed with our human rights obligations - particularly at a time when we sit on the UN Security Council?

By examining the human rights impact of Ireland's tax policies on children in developing countries, the committee will help clarify a key principle, long emphasised by those at the sharp end of tax avoidance: that a narrow focus on investment is only half the picture. Justice demands a reorientation of tax policy that puts principles of international cooperation, equality and human rights - including those of children - at its core.

Sorley McCaughey is head of policy and ddvocacy at Christian Aid Ireland

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Irish tax policy is now a human rights issue for the UN

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Thirty-one years ago this month, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A core international human rights treaty, it set key standards for children's rights and how governments must work to vindicate them.

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Department of Finance- Economic Developments

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Department of Finance- Economic Developments

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Emerging economic developments - real-time financial and international economic indicators 11th November 2020

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Emerging economic developments - real-time financial and international economic indicators 11th November 2020

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A huge thank you from everyone at Focus Ireland for Sponsoring a Star on the Focus Ireland Christmas tree. Your generous donation will make an impact on people experiencing homelessness this Christmas

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Latest Figures on Homelessness in Ireland - Focus Ireland

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A huge thank you from everyone at Focus Ireland for Sponsoring a Star on the Focus Ireland Christmas tree. Your generous donation will make an impact on people experiencing homelessness this Christmas

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Opinion: why are pay levels higher in some jobs than in others - or are similar in jobs that seem very different in terms of their requirements?
Are you being paid fairly? A recent large-scale survey of employees suggested that fewer than one quarter of employees are very satisfied with their overall level of compensation. There are many reasons why employees might be dissatisfied with their pay. One recurring theme is the concern that jobs that seem in many ways similar sometimes end up with very different levels of pay, while jobs that appear to involve quite different levels of skill end up with similar pay scales.

For example, the average salary for registered nurses in Ireland (€30,839) is almost identical to the average salary for clerical assistants in An Garda Siochana (€30,800). Depending on your perspective, this might seem entirely reasonable or grossly unfair.

Why are pay levels higher in some jobs than in others, or are similar in jobs that seem very different in terms of their requirements? It all comes down to three factors: (1) the market, (3) the characteristics of the jobs themselves and (3) the dead hand of history. It is this last factor, historical preferences and biases, that often fuels perceptions of unfair pay.

"The belief that the market defines how much different jobs are worth is troublesome for a number of reasons"

The market
The answer to why some jobs pay better than others is often "this is what the market will bear" and there is considerable wisdom in this approach. After all, if it is impossible to recruit nurses with a salary of €20,000, but entirely possible to fill this job at €30,000, it is hard to argue with the idea that the job is really only worth €20,000.

Taken to its extreme, the idea that the market determines the worth of jobs implies that the whole idea of unfair pay scales must be wrong, because this approach defines the worth of a job by the prevailing wage rate. Reports that the top bullfighter in Spain makes approximately 60 times as much as the President of Spain ( €5m versus €82,000) are taken by some people to mean that he is worth 60 times as much.

Where the dead hand of history has proved most troublesome in discussions of pay fairness is the belief that work performed by men is more valuable than work performed by women

The belief that the market defines how much different jobs are worth is troublesome for a number of reasons. First, this belief is an extension of the efficient markets hypothesis, the idea that markets have all the information required to accurately determine prices and value. This was once a dominant idea in economics, but has long lost its appeal. Markets tell what people do pay for goods and services, not what they should pay.
Job characteristics
An alternative is to set pay levels in relations to characteristics of the job such as the skills and knowledge the job requires, the responsibility and complexity of the job, the consequences of errors, the requirement to work under difficult or stressful conditions and the like. These types of "compensable factors" form the basis for many compensation schemes, and they present a seemingly objective method of determining the pay levels appropriate for different jobs.

Of course, there are questions such as why some aspects of work are treated as compensable (such as level of responsibility), while others are not (for example, providing personal care to others). But an analysis based on the characteristics of the job itself at least provides a rational answer to why some jobs are paid higher than others and why some jobs that seem to have very different contents nevertheless receive similar levels of pay.

The principle that companies should pay men and women the same pay for doing the same work is enshrined in the law of most industrialised countries. Analyses of pay on the basis of job characteristics led to the concept of "comparable worth" - i.e., that jobs that are of equal value (based on their compensable factors) should receive equal pay. Comparable worth has turned out to be a tricky concept in law, especially when jobs that have similar levels on compensable factors end up receiving different levels of pay in the marketplace, but this idea has sometimes been incorporated into pay negotiations.

An equal pay protest in London in 1976. Photo: Getty Images

History and tradition
The idea that some types of work are more valuable than others arguably reflects a very old set of ideas about how some types of people are more valuable than others. There is the long-standing idea that a "gentleman does not work with his hands"; the extension of this idea is that a nobleman does not work period.

Going back to the Middle Ages, the work a person performed determined his or her station in life. Manual work was reserved for the lowest classes, with the nobility living on the rents they collected rather than on the work they did. It is no coincidence that you still pay your rent check to your landlord, and it is also no coincidence that manual labour, even highly skilled manual labour, like the work of a master carpenter, is still viewed as less valuable than work that is primarily mental (e.g. managers and executives).

By the end of the first World War, the job of secretary was held mainly by women and the pay, prospects for advancement and prestige had plummeted.

Where the dead hand of history has proved most troublesome in discussions of pay fairness is the belief, once widely accepted, that work performed by men is more valuable than work performed by women. Thus, the finding that an elementary school teachers' annual salary (€23,000) is lower than that of construction labourers (€25,000) comes as little surprise. The salaries of male nurses are typically higher than those of female nurses.

The most compelling example of this bias in my mind comes from a job that was once male-dominated, but switched to being "pink-collar work". Prior to 1900, the job of secretary was prestigious and well paid. By the end of the first World War, the job of secretary was held mainly by women and the pay, prospects for advancement and prestige had plummeted.

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From RTÉ Radio One's Today With Sean O'Rourke, a discussion on the gender pay gap with Emily Logan, Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission' Kara McGann, IBEC and Sonya Lennon, founder of Dress for Success
There are many explanations for the gender pay gap such as differences in choice of occupation and family responsibilities. However, it is clear that part of the explanation for the persistent differences in the pay received by men and women is not explained by the jobs or employment trends, but rather by the belief that men and their contributions to the workplace are simply more valuable than women and their contributions.

Will we ever reach a state where most people believe they are being paid fairly? It is hard to be optimistic, especially given the surprising sustainability of ideas that have a continuing impact (for instance, that some classes of people are inherently better than and more valuable than others), even though they have a decreasing number of adherents. Change is possible, but it is rarely fast.

The long and the short of it? If you believe you are not being paid fairly, you may very well be right - but determining the level of pay that is 'fair" has turned out to a significant challenge..
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ

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Are you earning a fair day's pay for a fair day's work?

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Opinion: why are pay levels higher in some jobs than in others - or are similar in jobs that seem very different in terms of their requirements? Are you being paid fairly? A recent large-scale survey of employees suggested that fewer than one quarter of employees are very satisfied with their overall level of compensation.

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The Government has approved an increase in the National Minimum Wage of 10 cent an hour, which will bring it to €10.20 per hour from 1 January.

The move is set to benefit over 122,000 minimum wage workers, though unions have dismissed the increase of less than 1% as inadequate.

Some weeks ago, Irish Congress of Trade Unions General Secretary Patricia King and the General Secretary of the retail union Mandate Gerry Light quit the Low Pay Commission on the basis that the group's proposed 10 cent increase did not go far enough to address the needs of minimum wage workers.

Ms King said today, "Many of the workers on the minimum wage form part of the group of essential workers who have helped keep our economy going through this Covid-19 pandemic. It is therefore completely unacceptable that they and other workers who are the lowest paid in this state would not be afforded decency and fairness by receiving an equitable increase in the minimum wage".

The Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys, noted that the minimum wage had risen from €8.65 in 2016 to its current rate of €10.10.

However, she also pledged to reform PRSI thresholds to reflect the increase in the minimum wage and assist employers.

"I also want to ensure that the increase in the minimum wage does not result in employers having to pay a higher level of PRSI charge solely due to this increase. I will make regulations that will increase the employer PRSI threshold from €395 currently to €398 from 1st January 2021," she said.

Ms Humhreys said that the Low Pay Commission had played an important role in improving data collection on low paid and minimum wage workers, and developing a strong research base.

ICTU confirmed that its representatives had withdrawn from the LPC last week "...as they could not in conscience be a party to any recommendation that did not afford the lowest-paid workers in the country an increase at least similar to that applicable in other sectors of our economy."

Ms King said many minimum wage workers formed part of the group of essential workers who had kept the economy going through the Covid-19 pandemic.

"It is therefore completely unacceptable that they and other workers who are the lowest paid in this state would not be afforded decency and fairness by receiving an equitable increase in the minimum wage," she said.

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Government approves 10c an hour minimum wage increase

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The Government has approved an increase in the National Minimum Wage of 10 cent an hour, which will bring it to €10.20 per hour from 1 January. The move is set to benefit over 122,000 minimum wage workers, though unions have dismissed the increase of less than 1% as inadequate.

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The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney T.D. and Minister of State for Overseas Aid and Diaspora, Colm Brophy T.D., today welcomed the allocation of €868 million to overseas aid in the 2021 budget. This is an increase of €30 million on the allocation in Budget 2020, enabling the allocation to overseas aid to increase for the seventh year in a row.

Minister Coveney said:
'Today's increase of €30 million in the overall allocation for Official Development Aid is an investment in a better world, in line with our values and our international commitments. It is a demonstration, as we prepare for our seat at the UN Security Council, that Ireland is working for a planet that is peaceful, sustainable, and equitable. This increase will assist Ireland make our full contribution to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has revealed just how much our wellbeing in Ireland is connected to that of others. Helping those without our advantages cope with the fallout of the virus, including through improving health, food security and education system, and access a vaccine, will help safeguard our own health and prosperity. Helping them is not just the right thing to do, it is the sensible thing to do.'
Minister Brophy added:
'Ireland's world class international development cooperation programme, Irish Aid, enables us to deliver on our commitment to respond to those most in need. The increase in the allocation for overseas development aid funding next year announced today underlines the priority which I - and the Government - attach to meeting our aid targets. It will enable us to continue to support global health responses to the virus. Importantly, as Irish Aid establishes a dedicated climate unit, this increase will also enable us to make progress on the other challenge of our generation, climate change. Already people are going hungry, are falling into conflict, are forced to leave their homes, because of climate change. Some small island states are facing existential threats. As we move to do more at home, Irish Aid will do more abroad, because climate change affects us all.
The additional funding will also help us build on the excellent work of Irish Aid meeting the needs of those furthest behind - Irish Aid is regularly found to be the best at reaching those most in need.'
ENDS Press Office 13 October 2020 Notes to the Editor:
1 - The allocation to overseas aid in 2021 is estimated to bring Irish Official Development Assistance (ODA) as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) to 0.32%, compared to an estimated allocation of 0.31% GNI this year.

2 - For 2021, the Government has allocated €868 million for Official Development Assistance, an increase of almost €30 million on the 2020 allocation. €571 million will be managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs, with the remaining accounted for through Ireland's share of the EU development cooperation instruments, and ODA eligible contributions from other Government Departments.

3 - Irish Aid, Ireland's Official Development Assistance programme, is regularly appraised and found to be among the best in the world. The OECD DAC (Development Assistance Committee) peer review published in May 2020 is available to read here and found Irish Aid to 'walk the talk'. In 2019, ODI, a development think tank, found Irish Aid to be the most effective donor at targeting the poorest - see here.

4 - Ireland's international development policy, A Better World, is available here.

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Ministers welcome increased allocation for Overseas Aid

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The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney T.D. and Minister of State for Overseas Aid and Diaspora, Colm Brophy T.D., today welcomed the allocation of €868 million to overseas aid in the 2021 budget. This is an increase of €30 million on the allocation in Budget 2020, enabling the allocation to overseas aid to increase for the seventh year in a row.

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Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has reassured Pandemic Unemployment Payment recipients that most will retain their entitlement to a Christmas bonus even if they return to work when public health restrictions are eased next week.

Over 1.6 million people currently receiving state benefits are set to receive a Christmas bonus payable in the week beginning 7 December, at a total cost to the Exchequer of €390m.

That includes over 311,000 Pandemic Unemployment Payment recipients - 90% of current PUP claimants - who will qualify for the bonus at a cost of around €93m.

To be eligible, they must have received the payment for at least 17 weeks (not necessarily on a continuous basis) since the scheme was launched last March, and be claiming the benefit for at least part of the week commencing tomorrow, Friday 27 November.

The minister has noted concerns that some people could be reluctant to return to work as businesses reopen next week, for fear of losing out on the Christmas bonus.

However, she stressed that as long as people are receiving PUP "for any one day of the period Friday 27th November [tomorrow] to Thursday 3rd December", they will receive the bonus on Tuesday 8 December, assuming they have accrued their 17 weeks on the scheme.

This means there will be situations where people will receive a double PUP payment (the standard payment and the Christmas bonus) in the week beginning 7 December while being back in work.
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"It is important that people know that as long as they meet the above criteria (ie 17 weeks on the PUP including at least one day of the PUP Payment Week) , their Christmas Bonus is intact," she said.

Th minister noted that more people than usual on Jobseekers' allowance will also be eligible for the bonus.

Previously, Jobseekers' allowance recipients could only qualify for the Christmas bonus if they had been receiving it for at least 15 months, but for this year the qualifying period has been reduced to four months (17 weeks) "on an exceptional basis".

Minister Humphreys acknowledged the particular difficulties facing many families this year.

"There are many individuals and families who have lost their job or business as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and have been out of work for several months now.

"The Bonus will help to ease the financial burden on them at this very difficult time," she said.

She also noted that this additional money should boost local economies, saying: "If people spend their Christmas Bonus locally this year, they will be putting over €390m into the Irish economy and local businesses."

The bonus amounts to 100% of the normal weekly payment to recipients of long-term social welfare schemes, including pensioners, widows, carers and lone parents.

However, the payment date will vary depending on which social welfare scheme applies for the individual involved.

Meanwhile, up to 90,000 people could come off the PUP and return to work soon under the restrictions easing plan set to be agreed by the Government tomorrow.

This includes 26,000 workers employed in the retail and wholesale sector, RTÉ News understands.

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Minister moves to reassure over PUP Christmas bonus

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Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has reassured Pandemic Unemployment Payment recipients that most will retain their entitlement to a Christmas bonus even if they return to work when public health restrictions are eased next week.

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Irelands builds houses at the wrong time, in the wrong place and the wrong price- David McWilliams

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Irelands builds houses at the wrong time, in the wrong place and the wrong price- David McWilliams

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Planning for housing based on national population dynamics is one of the most basic functions of economic policy in any country. More people means more homes delivered at stable prices, built by a healthy, innovative construction industry, using the most up-to-date techniques to meet whatever communal and societal standards are expected without requiring long commutes.

This is what proper countries do. On this score, Ireland is the dunce of Europe. We build in the wrong places, at the wrong price, at the wrong time, driven by the interests of landowners and banks, leading to booms and slumps, bankruptcies, ghost estates and now hundreds of thousands of citizens priced out of a pathetically dysfunctional market. This has to stop.

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David McWilliams: Ireland builds houses at the wrong time, in the wrong place, at the wrong price

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Planning for housing based on national population dynamics is one of the most basic functions of economic policy in any country. More people means more homes delivered at stable prices, built by a healthy, innovative construction industry, using the most up-to-date techniques to meet whatever communal and societal standards are expected without requiring long commutes.

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What would change if the government gave everyone in Ireland €200 a week?

It could empower Irish workers, but is it really the best solution for the country's poorest and most vulnerable citizens?

In the fifth episode of Ireland 2029, we explore the pros and cons.

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should ireland introduce a universal basic income?

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‎Ireland 2029: Shaping Our Future: Should Ireland introduce a universal basic income? on Apple Podcasts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
‎What would change if the government gave everyone in Ireland €200 a week? It could empower Irish workers, but is it really the best solution for the country's poorest and most vulnerable citizens? In the fifth episode of Ireland 2029, we explore the pros and cons.

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Listen to live and catch-up radio, and browse RTÉ Radio schedules and podcast catalogue

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subscribe to Planet Money podcast

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On Nov. 29, 2012, dozens of fast-food workers assembled at a McDonald's in Midtown Manhattan to demand better pay. Their demonstration kicked off a massive wave of protests for a $15 minimum wage. Since then, cities and states around the U.S. have taken action. And now, the federal government, led by President Biden and a Democratic-controlled Congress, has begun to consider making the $15 minimum wage national.

McDonald's is one of the nation's biggest employers of low-wage workers. As such, it was kind of the perfect place to launch what was, in retrospect, the beginning of a historic labor movement. A new study by economists Orley Ashenfelter and Štěpán Jurajda suggests McDonald's is also kind of the perfect place to test the effects of the minimum wage increases that workers have been fighting for.

Ashenfelter is an economist at Princeton University, and he has spent a couple of decades studying McDonald's. Back in 2012, when he was president of the American Economic Association, he even dedicated part of his big presidential address to the company. And it wasn't just because, as he told us, his "favorite meal is fries, a chocolate shake and a Big Mac." He views McDonald's as a kind of natural "laboratory" to compare and contrast different labor markets. I mean, think about it: Each McDonald's restaurant is pretty much the same. The workers have almost identical jobs, regardless of which part of the world they're in; the food they make is generally the same; and McDonald's restaurants are basically everywhere.

Meanwhile, over the last decade, a McFlurry of cities and states has been raising their minimum wages. In their new study, Ashenfelter and Jurajda use McDonald's restaurants as kind of like treatment and control groups to assess the impact of these new minimum wage laws. They obtained data on hourly wage rates of McDonald's "Basic Crew" employees, the prices of Big Macs and other information from about 10,000 McDonald's restaurants between 2016 and 2020. And they crunched the numbers to see what happens when a city or state increases its minimum wage.

One big fear of a higher minimum wage is that it could cause businesses to replace their workers with machines. Ashenfelter and Jurajda found that some McDonald's restaurants have already installed touch screens so customers can input their meal orders without interacting with a human being. But they also found that those touch screens weren't installed in response to higher minimum wages. "We couldn't find any relationship between minimum wage increases and the adoption of touch-screen technology," Ashenfelter says.

Not surprisingly, Ashenfelter and Jurajda found that McDonald's restaurants raise their wages after a city or state raises its minimum wage. More surprisingly, they found that a substantial fraction of restaurants preserve their pay premiums for workers who were previously earning more than the minimum wage. That is, if a worker was making a dollar more than the old minimum wage, many McDonald's will make sure those workers continue to make a dollar more than the new minimum wage. Ashenfelter says they don't have hard evidence for why this is, but he believes it's because certain restaurants want to offer wages slightly higher than the legal minimum as a way to reduce turnover. Paying above the minimum wage creates a kind of magnet for workers. Overall, the economists found that if the minimum wage goes up by 10%, the average McDonald's restaurant will increase worker wages by about 7%.

Finally and perhaps most thought provokingly, the economists looked at the effects of minimum wage hikes on the prices of Big Macs. They found that when the minimum wage goes up, the price of a Big Mac goes up too. Ashenfelter says the evidence from increased food prices suggests that basically all of the "increase of labor costs gets passed right on to the customers." But because low-wage workers are also usually customers at low-wage establishments, this suggests that any pay raise resulting from a minimum wage increase might not be as great in reality as it looks on paper. In econospeak, the increase in their "real wage" - that is, their wage after accounting for the price of the stuff they buy - is not as high, because the cost of some of the stuff they buy, such as fast food, goes up too.

However, Ashenfelter says, the fast-food workers they studied were still, on the net, much better off. "They still get a raise. They just don't get as big a raise as it may seem," he says. In effect, a minimum wage increase appears to be a redistribution of wealth from customers to low-wage workers. Ashenfelter says he thinks of it like a kind of sales tax. And for whatever reason, unlike with many other types of taxes, the minimum wage tax seems to be more popular with voters - even in many red states, like Florida, where they're voting to increase the minimum wage.

The one big disappointment from Ashenfelter and Jurajda's study is they're unable to tell us much about the effects of minimum wages on employment, which is at the center of the debate about the policy. They couldn't obtain data on hiring and firing from McDonald's restaurants around the nation.

It's worth remembering that McDonald's was also at the center of the famous study by David Card and Alan Krueger that revolutionized economic thinking about the minimum wage. Card and Krueger found no evidence that New Jersey's hike of the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.05 an hour reduced employment at fast-food restaurants there. Would the same happen in the entire nation if the federal government raised it from $7.25 to $15? Last week, the Congressional Budget Office, while saying a $15 minimum wage would reduce poverty, cast doubt on the idea that there would be no substantial job losses.

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What McDonald's Shows About The Minimum Wage

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subscribe to Planet Money podcast subscribe to Planet Money podcast On Nov. 29, 2012, dozens of fast-food workers assembled at a McDonald's in Midtown Manhattan to demand better pay. Their demonstration kicked off a massive wave of protests for a $15 minimum wage. Since then, cities and states around the U.S.

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The concept of a universal basic income has already been suggested for arts workers hit by the pandemic, but what if there was a constant security and safety net for all, a payment always delivered to all citizens with no strings attached?

The idea was first floated by Thomas More in Utopia in 1516, is now being advocated by Pope Francis and President Michael D Higgins and is being considered by governments across the world. The basic income guarantee is frequently referred to as universal basic income (UBI).

UBI is a periodic payment paid at regular intervals as a cash payment without conditions, allowing those who receive it to decide what to spend it on. It is paid individually without a means test and is unconditional - without a requirement to work or demonstrate a willingness to work.

In Ireland, the Green Party fought for a trial run for UBI to be included in the Programme for Government, and there is to be one at some stage over the next five years.

UBI would be given to each recipient from birth or point of residency, from 'cradle to grave', with the amount given to those under 26 years of age varied depending on wages

Among its most ardent supporters is Green Party Dublin Central TD Neasa Hourigan, co-author of the party's policy. The Green Party proposes a system of UBI in Ireland for all citizens in 2024, pending a successful trial. She envisages that the trial in Ireland will take between 18 and 20 months to plan and that the trial itself would run for two to three years.

"A basic provision of economic resources would address poverty and economic inequality even though it doesn't promise to eradicate either," Hourigan says. She says that in Ireland we already recognise payments like these - child benefit and state pension - but UBI would close the gap between the two.

"I am particularly wedded to UBI because it would have the greatest uplift for people on the margins of existing social welfare bands. The lowest income families should already be within the support network but those in part-time employment often find themselves just outside State help. UBI would address that and be particularly important for women and those who care."

'[UBI is] a big idea but a transformative idea, in the way bringing in an old-age pension would have been seen as radical more than 100 years ago'

The Greens are not alone in supporting UBI. It also has advocates in Fianna Fáil such as Willie O'Dea, while outside government the Social Democrats have also expressed interest. The Department of Social Protection has said that the Low Pay Commission will examine UBI "in due course".

It has been tested elsewhere. The longest trial run for UBI in the world is in Alaska. Since 1982, the state has been giving every woman, man, and child between $1,000 to $2,000 per year. A 2016 study by the University of Alaska found it reduced poverty up to 20 per cent.

In Finland, a two-year UBI study in 2017 and 2018 saw 2,000 unemployed Finns receive the payments of €560, with no obligation to seek a job and no reduction in payment if they accepted one. Participants reported greater feelings of autonomy, financial security, and confidence in the future, although it did not make them any more likely to find work.

"[UBI is] a big idea but a transformative idea, in the way bringing in an old-age pension would have been seen as radical more than 100 years ago," says Bobby Lambert, joint co-ordinator of Basic Income Ireland, a campaign group for UBI in Ireland.

Lambert would rather the Irish trial did not focus on a group like the unemployed and rather a more general group of people, preferably a geographical area. To pay every resident in Ireland the basic income would cost an estimated €6.5 billion per annum.

Some taxes suggested to raise for money for UBI in the Green Party policy include pension funds, site value tax, speculative transaction tax and stamp duty for property trades that are not the principal private residence.

UBI would be given to each recipient from birth or point of residency, from "cradle to grave", with the amount given to those under 26 years of age varied depending on wages - in a similar way to how social welfare exists today - with a set rate given to all adults over 26. Children under 18-years-old would receive €32.31 per week, according to the Green Party plan, with €112.70 for 18 to 21-year-olds, €157.80 for 21 to 25-year-olds and €203 for adults over 26 years old.

'It's giving everyone a low amount of money and we will give unemployed people less than they need and unnecessarily so'

UBI is not without its critics. Laura Bambrick, the head of social policy and employment affairs at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, finds the idea of replacing existing welfare safety nets concerning. The money needed to pay adequate UBI, she says, "would be better spent on reforming social protection systems and building better quality public services".

"Our welfare system is complex precisely because the root causes of poverty are complex," Bambrick says. "A one-size-fits-all payment will hurt those with the greatest risk of poverty."

She believes that no UBI payment would work as well as an average European welfare system for the most vulnerable people. And she contends that providing welfare top-up's on top of UBI, as advocated by some proponents of this system, would end up being far too costly. "[It] would make for a uniquely Irish UBI, and I look forward to seeing their maths." Hourigan says that the difference between the current welfare rates and UBI will be made up by further State payments.

Welfare and efficient use of resources also concerns Ian Goldin, Professor of Globalisation and Development at Oxford University, who has spoken against UBI in the past.

He says that if you gave everyone half the minimum wage in Ireland, it would be bigger than the budget of all social welfare. He points out that UBI is favoured by tech billionaires and right-wing libertarians as well as left-wing progressives, and it may be used by the rich to normalise the automation of employment and abolish existing welfare supports.

"It's giving everyone a low amount of money and we will give unemployed people less than they need and unnecessarily so. That is not the answer to either poverty inequality or the future of work."

Goldin also takes issue at the universality of UBI, saying it is a waste of needed funds to give the income to the wealthy. He says that societal safety nets and raising the wage of low-paid and vulnerable workers through the current system would be a more worthy use of resources.

'UBI is not going to solve the housing crisis. But it is part of a general investment for a better and fairer society'

The other issue frequently brought up by critics of UBI is the danger that an unconditional payment would disincentivise work, even though the trials done so far suggest that payments have little effect on employment.

Danny McCoy,chief executive of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec), says UBI would "undermine our current active labour market policies" which would "result in labour supply challenges and could diminish overall labour cost competitiveness in the economy".

He says that Ibec remains open to debate on the merits of UBI and research that indicates it could be positive for entrepreneurship. On that point, Lambert highlights a UBI project in Namibia, which found it helped local business as they had the financial security to work on business ideas.

Hourigan says that Covid-19 has changed the discussion and been valuable to the UBI debate. "There has always been a real resistance to the idea that our current tax system and economic models could support such a payment. The Covid-19 crisis has refocused the minds of many towards the well-being of communities.

"UBI is not going to solve the housing crisis," says Lambert. "But it is part of a general investment for a better and fairer society."

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Basic income for all: Has the Covid crisis given us a new economic model?

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The concept of a universal basic income has already been suggested for arts workers hit by the pandemic, but what if there was a constant security and safety net for all, a payment always delivered to all citizens with no strings attached?

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Union officials portray a day in the life of a meat worker

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Covid-19 outbreaks attributed to substandard employment and living conditions

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Results from the city that just gave away cash

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Results from the city that just gave away cash

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subscribe to Planet Money podcast

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In 2012, when Michael Tubbs was a city council member in Stockton, Calif., the city was going through a tough time. It was dealing with the fallout from the financial crisis. It was working its way through a bankruptcy. It was also regularly featured in Forbes Magazine as one of " America's Most Miserable Cities."

For Tubbs, the Forbes jab was personal. He was raised in Stockton and grew up in poverty. He was elected to the city council at the age of 22, and went on to run for mayor. He won in 2016, becoming - at age 26 - one of the youngest mayors in the country.

Tubbs says he came to the mayor's office ready to enact some transformative change in Stockton. "I decided that we would call into question the very structure that produces poverty in the first place," he told NPR in an interview in 2020.

In 2019, he founded the Stockton Economic Empowerment Distribution, or SEED. Funded by philanthropic donations, SEED gave 125 individuals $500 a month for two years. The individuals were randomly selected from neighborhoods with a median income at or below $46,033, which is Stockton's median household income. There were no strings attached. No drug tests. No work requirements. Just $500 every month for people to spend as they saw fit.

A team of independent researchers saw an opportunity to conduct a parallel experiment. Stacia West of the University of Tennessee and Amy Castro Baker of the University of Pennsylvania collected data from those who received $500 a month, and also from people in a control group, who received nothing.

They found that the income reduced recipients' income volatility - that is, the income fluctuations a household faces month-to-month - compared to people in the control group. The researchers say the money created opportunities for self-determination and choice. It left recipients better positioned to handle a $400 unexpected expense compared to the control group. And it had a significant impact on recipients' mental health. One said before receiving the money, "I had regular panic attacks and anxiety. I was at the point where I had to take a pill for it." Since receiving the checks, the recipient said, "I haven't even touched [the pills] in a while. I used to carry them on me all the time."

Critics of programs that hand out money with no strings attached argue that recipients might squander the cash. Or that people who receive a guaranteed income don't have an incentive to find work.

The Stockton study found that families who received the money were most likely to spend it on essential items like food, home goods, utilities and gas. As for the effect on job seeking, the study found that after one year, the percentage of recipients who had full-time employment grew from 28% to 40%. That was more than twice the rate for the control group, which rose by only 5%.

Baker says it comes down to risk. The idea of being able to make a risky decision that might not pay off - for example interviewing for another job - is often inconceivable for people in poverty. But sometimes people need to take risks in order to succeed. Baker said that in the SEED experiment, $500 a month allowed them to do exactly that. "People were able to apply for jobs they knew they were eligible for but just literally could not take a shift off of work to do so."

The researchers noted that financial scarcity leads to time scarcity. "When you live in constant scarcity your entire day is taken up with battling poverty and trying to make ends meet. You literally don't have the capacity, or the time to even breathe and reset and think about what a different goal might be," said Baker.

The money offset that pressure. One recipient described being able to finally take time off work to study and complete his real estate license and even pursue an associate degree: "I have more time and net worth to study... to achieve my goals."

The SEED experiment contributes to a growing number of studies around the world exploring ways to alleviate poverty. One example, the concept of universal basic income, gained widespread attention during the 2020 election, when former presidential candidate Andrew Yang campaigned on the idea of giving every American adult $1000 a month, every month, for the rest of their lives.

Many lawmakers recoiled, but ideas like UBI are gaining traction. The 2020 stimulus checks are one example. A new policy championed by Democrats, to give low- and middle-income parents money based on the age and number of their children is another. Members of Congress, rather than relying on means-testing or vouchers to delineate financial support, appear increasingly willing to simply give people money and let them decide how to spend it.

The full analysis from the Stockton study will be finalized in 2022, but the researchers are already evaluating several other similar studies in cities across the country. These studies target a variety of different populations, for example, Black women caregivers, teenagers in New Orleans, and survivors of domestic violence.

"I think in the next couple of years, we're going to have this knowledge base to really build good policy off of," said West.

Did you enjoy this newsletter segment? Well, it looks even better in your inbox! You can sign up here.

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Results From The City That Just Gave Away Cash

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subscribe to Planet Money podcast subscribe to Planet Money podcast In 2012, when Michael Tubbs was a city council member in Stockton, Calif., the city was going through a tough time. It was dealing with the fallout from the financial crisis. It was working its way through a bankruptcy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The concept of a universal basic income has already been suggested for arts workers hit by the pandemic, but what if there was a constant security and safety net for all, a payment always delivered to all citizens with no strings attached?

The idea was first floated by Thomas More in Utopia in 1516, is now being advocated by Pope Francis and President Michael D Higgins and is being considered by governments across the world. The basic income guarantee is frequently referred to as universal basic income (UBI).

UBI is a periodic payment paid at regular intervals as a cash payment without conditions, allowing those who receive it to decide what to spend it on. It is paid individually without a means test and is unconditional - without a requirement to work or demonstrate a willingness to work.

In Ireland, the Green Party fought for a trial run for UBI to be included in the Programme for Government, and there is to be one at some stage over the next five years.

UBI would be given to each recipient from birth or point of residency, from 'cradle to grave', with the amount given to those under 26 years of age varied depending on wages

Among its most ardent supporters is Green Party Dublin Central TD Neasa Hourigan, co-author of the party's policy. The Green Party proposes a system of UBI in Ireland for all citizens in 2024, pending a successful trial. She envisages that the trial in Ireland will take between 18 and 20 months to plan and that the trial itself would run for two to three years.

"A basic provision of economic resources would address poverty and economic inequality even though it doesn't promise to eradicate either," Hourigan says. She says that in Ireland we already recognise payments like these - child benefit and state pension - but UBI would close the gap between the two.

"I am particularly wedded to UBI because it would have the greatest uplift for people on the margins of existing social welfare bands. The lowest income families should already be within the support network but those in part-time employment often find themselves just outside State help. UBI would address that and be particularly important for women and those who care."

'[UBI is] a big idea but a transformative idea, in the way bringing in an old-age pension would have been seen as radical more than 100 years ago'

The Greens are not alone in supporting UBI. It also has advocates in Fianna Fáil such as Willie O'Dea, while outside government the Social Democrats have also expressed interest. The Department of Social Protection has said that the Low Pay Commission will examine UBI "in due course".

It has been tested elsewhere. The longest trial run for UBI in the world is in Alaska. Since 1982, the state has been giving every woman, man, and child between $1,000 to $2,000 per year. A 2016 study by the University of Alaska found it reduced poverty up to 20 per cent.

In Finland, a two-year UBI study in 2017 and 2018 saw 2,000 unemployed Finns receive the payments of €560, with no obligation to seek a job and no reduction in payment if they accepted one. Participants reported greater feelings of autonomy, financial security, and confidence in the future, although it did not make them any more likely to find work.

"[UBI is] a big idea but a transformative idea, in the way bringing in an old-age pension would have been seen as radical more than 100 years ago," says Bobby Lambert, joint co-ordinator of Basic Income Ireland, a campaign group for UBI in Ireland.

Lambert would rather the Irish trial did not focus on a group like the unemployed and rather a more general group of people, preferably a geographical area. To pay every resident in Ireland the basic income would cost an estimated €6.5 billion per annum.

Some taxes suggested to raise for money for UBI in the Green Party policy include pension funds, site value tax, speculative transaction tax and stamp duty for property trades that are not the principal private residence.

UBI would be given to each recipient from birth or point of residency, from "cradle to grave", with the amount given to those under 26 years of age varied depending on wages - in a similar way to how social welfare exists today - with a set rate given to all adults over 26. Children under 18-years-old would receive €32.31 per week, according to the Green Party plan, with €112.70 for 18 to 21-year-olds, €157.80 for 21 to 25-year-olds and €203 for adults over 26 years old.

'It's giving everyone a low amount of money and we will give unemployed people less than they need and unnecessarily so'

UBI is not without its critics. Laura Bambrick, the head of social policy and employment affairs at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, finds the idea of replacing existing welfare safety nets concerning. The money needed to pay adequate UBI, she says, "would be better spent on reforming social protection systems and building better quality public services".

"Our welfare system is complex precisely because the root causes of poverty are complex," Bambrick says. "A one-size-fits-all payment will hurt those with the greatest risk of poverty."

She believes that no UBI payment would work as well as an average European welfare system for the most vulnerable people. And she contends that providing welfare top-up's on top of UBI, as advocated by some proponents of this system, would end up being far too costly. "[It] would make for a uniquely Irish UBI, and I look forward to seeing their maths." Hourigan says that the difference between the current welfare rates and UBI will be made up by further State payments.

Welfare and efficient use of resources also concerns Ian Goldin, Professor of Globalisation and Development at Oxford University, who has spoken against UBI in the past.

He says that if you gave everyone half the minimum wage in Ireland, it would be bigger than the budget of all social welfare. He points out that UBI is favoured by tech billionaires and right-wing libertarians as well as left-wing progressives, and it may be used by the rich to normalise the automation of employment and abolish existing welfare supports.

"It's giving everyone a low amount of money and we will give unemployed people less than they need and unnecessarily so. That is not the answer to either poverty inequality or the future of work."

Goldin also takes issue at the universality of UBI, saying it is a waste of needed funds to give the income to the wealthy. He says that societal safety nets and raising the wage of low-paid and vulnerable workers through the current system would be a more worthy use of resources.

'UBI is not going to solve the housing crisis. But it is part of a general investment for a better and fairer society'

The other issue frequently brought up by critics of UBI is the danger that an unconditional payment would disincentivise work, even though the trials done so far suggest that payments have little effect on employment.

Danny McCoy,chief executive of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec), says UBI would "undermine our current active labour market policies" which would "result in labour supply challenges and could diminish overall labour cost competitiveness in the economy".

He says that Ibec remains open to debate on the merits of UBI and research that indicates it could be positive for entrepreneurship. On that point, Lambert highlights a UBI project in Namibia, which found it helped local business as they had the financial security to work on business ideas.

Hourigan says that Covid-19 has changed the discussion and been valuable to the UBI debate. "There has always been a real resistance to the idea that our current tax system and economic models could support such a payment. The Covid-19 crisis has refocused the minds of many towards the well-being of communities.

"UBI is not going to solve the housing crisis," says Lambert. "But it is part of a general investment for a better and fairer society."

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Basic income for all: Has the Covid crisis given us a new economic model?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The concept of a universal basic income has already been suggested for arts workers hit by the pandemic, but what if there was a constant security and safety net for all, a payment always delivered to all citizens with no strings attached?