Helping those who are poor ,and those who now find themselves on the lower rungs of the economic ladder is never going to be a political winner, as we can see from certain predictable remarks on this.

The economic downturn has made plans to reduce poverty even more crucial .The only way we're ever going to succeed in the fight against poverty is for it to become a core responsibility of governments now and into the future.

Is that your view?

Sarah

This is a good question. I am in favour of their being a social hammock for times like this. I am glad that I live in The Netherlands where I pay realtively high taxes to support one. I am conscious of the hazards of a social system. It does get abused. One reason why The Netherlands has a low official unemployment rate is that it is difficult to claim unemployment benefit which is controlled. In Ireland the social benefits are not generous. What is generous is the bureaucracy that goes into sustaining the system

Myles

Haven't heard too many people say they'll take the redundancy and live off the dole for a year or two. Spongers will sponge no mater what you do. The rest of us will always want to work whether welfare benefits are high or low. Welfare is needed to keep a household together when you're looking for work, or have to take a low-paying job while looking for something better. When real costs come down, then we can look at welfare rates.

Alex Jules.