Blog Carnival-The Human Rights Implications of Budget 2010

HRiI is today, on International Human Rights Day 2009, hosting a blog carnival to give initial reactive assessment of the impact of  Budget 2010 from a human rights perspective. As with our last blog carnival, I am using a Wordle to illustrate the main themes of the budget in a word cloud.

Posts from our regular contributors and from guest contributors will tease out the human rights impact of the budget in the areas of social security law; children’s rights; labour rights; the rights of migrants; women and Budget 2010; the rights of those who are disabled; the human rights and equality infrastructure within the State.

There is much analysis of Budget 2010 in the main Irish broadsheets (see here, here and here).  RTE allows individuals to watch the budget statement in full. Tonight with Vincent Browne had an excellent post budget analysis programme last night. The focus of this show was on the people affected by Budget 2010 with interesting contributions from a wide range of persons.

We are always open to readers’ proposals for guest posts and blog events. You can send us a direct message via our facebook fan page or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/humanrightsblog, or you can email any of the regular contributors.

I do hope you enjoy this blog carnival and hope that it adds a more human rights analysis to Budget 2010 than has to date been provided.

Countdown to Budget 2010

Public sector strikes, the forces of law and order (potentially) rebelling, 12.5% of the labour force unemployed and a host of advocacy groups fighting their corner (see Mairead’s excellent collection of campaigns and pre-budget submissions).  The 2010 Estimates of Receipts and Expenditure projects an almost €22 billion short-fall. Spending on health, children, community and rural affairs (and the Irish Secret Service!) are set to fall.  Spending in welfare is projected to be up, but with more people relying on Ireland’s social support structures, there is less money to go around.

Asylum Seekers, Migrant Workers & Budget 2010

Following up from Mairead’s post on campaigning groups and Budget 2010, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mrs. Mary Hanafin T.D. has remained tight-lipped about the suspected cuts to the social welfare budget (See the Minister’s interview with Pat Kenny on RTE‘s  The Frontline here). In a recession, those particularly on the margins will be affected. Government social support for asylum seekers was extraordinarily low in the dizzying heights of the Celtic Tiger, and there is no indication that those within the direct provision system will see this system discontinued or reformed-despite the pure economic benefits that could ensue (see a previous blog post on this here).

The condition of reception centres which cater for some 6,800 asylum seekers has recently been in the news (here and here). Asylum seekers in Sligo complained about the condition of a reception centre, due to a lack of hot water and lack of adequate hygiene facilities.

It is unlikely that Budget 2010 will see any increase in the stipend of €19.10 per adult and €9.60 per child per week.  Saint Vincent de Paul has stated that there should be no decrease in this level of payment and “common decency requires the rate to be increased”.

Limerick Mayor, Kevin Kiely has stated that immigrants who cannot afford to pay for themselves should be deported from the country after three months. While it is unclear who precisely Cllr. Kiely was referring to, his comments should be challanged. For those seeking protection from the State, they are legislatively prohibited from working on pain of a fine and/or imprisonment. For those immigrants who had an entitlement to work in Ireland, often in the building industry and services sector, it sends a message that these people are simply a means to an end. Once maximum economic value was gained from these immigrants contribution to the economy, they are to be case aside and sent home. It will be interesting to see if debates on immigration, asylum and welfare protection will come to the fore in the coming weeks, in the lead up to Budget 2010.

I will be live blogging Budget 2010 on HRiI on December 9, 2009.  This will be followed by a blog carnival on December 10 2009 (International Human Rights Day) assessing the impact of Budget 2010 on human rights protections in Ireland.

Budget 2010: Live Blogging and Blog Carnival (Expressions of Interest)

Human Rights in Ireland will be live blogging the Irish Budget 2010 on Wednesday 9 December 2009 (from about 3 p.m. onwards).

On Thursday 10 December 2009, International Human Rights Day, a mini Blog Carnival will assess the human rights impact of Budget 2010.

These postings could potentially include human rights analysis in the following areas:

• Impact on human rights and equality institutions in the State, in particular after the draconian cut backs from Budget 2009;
• The impact of potential cutbacks on economic, social and cultural rights at home (i.e. in the broad sense, from rise in taxes, to cuts in social welfare and other public programmes) and abroad (Irish Aid);
• The right to work and budget measures in place that may assist in this right’s realisation;
• The impact of the budget on sectoral groups: workers; the unemployed; the disabled; single parents; immigrants etc.
• Other budgetary implications for human rights in Ireland.

As well as relying on the in-house expertise of Human Rights in Ireland bloggers, those  in the human rights, community, voluntary  and other related sectors are invited to submit proposals for commentary that they may wish to make on the budget. Blog posts should be between 400-1,000 words (max).

Those interested may contact me at lp.thornton@ulster.ac.uk (before 1 December 2009) so that a full Blog Programme can be ready to upload throughout International Human Rights Day.