" We need a new war - a war on poverty ..." - McVerry

We need a much stronger sense of solidarity to come out of the economic crisis, and yet such solidarity was almost destroyed by the Celtic Tiger, according to Fr Peter McVerry SJ who addressed the MacGill Summer School this week. 

He was among politicians, academics and other experts at the school that has the theme, Reforming the Republic - issues of politics, economics and accountability. 

While some politicians made the headlines such as Lucinda Creighton, who criticised her own party’s fundraising activities, Fr McVerry spoke of the values that we forgot during the Celtic Tiger years, a time he described as people were so busy making money.  He said that during that period we came to believe that our happiness and fulfilment was to be found in consuming goods and services and that led to an unsustainable economy.

“You can’t keep buying more and more,” Fr McVerry said, “because the resources are limited, finance is limited, and we were doing it with borrowed money.  So I think if we are to come out of this we need a new economic model based on values of justice, compassion, sustainability and community.”

He explained, in an interview on radio that during the Celtic Tiger years, that many enjoyed an exceptional standard of living but others did not.  For example, the number of homeless people doubled, and the number of people waiting for social housing, and one in nine children, still lived in consistent poverty.

“In the past there was a sense of solidarity among people at war or threatened by war, when people agreed to live more simply and shared what they had in order to win the war.  We need a new war - a war on poverty, and a war on ecological destruction, and climate change.” 

“If we are committed to building a sustainable world, where everybody has a reasonable standard of living then we could develop that sense of solidarity.  But without that sense of solidarity everybody’s greed and individualism is going to run amok as it has been over a number of years,” he said.

This is the 30th MacGill Summer School and it aims to analyse the political, economic and administrative systems that have allowed our economy to be brought to its knees, and to propose solutions.  “The widely acknowledged need for institutional and political reform of the way in which our state is run as well as the future development of our economy is top of the agenda of the 2010 MacGill School on the occasion of its thirtieth anniversary,” said Joe Mulholland, Director, MacGill Summer School.

by Ann Marie Foley