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Welcome to the Social Justice Team Newsletter
Welcome to the Social Justice Team Newsletter. We are delighted to bring you this month's edition. We hope you find it useful and helpful. The newsletter is now available on the SVP website.
In this issue
Behind The Scenes
Meeting with Minister Dara Calleary
On the 1st of May we met with Minister Calleary, who is the Minister for Social Protection and Minister for Rural, Community Development and the Gaeltacht. The Minister was open to ongoing collaboration and asked for all SVP regions to make independent submissions to the Roadmap for Social Inclusion. Please click here to read the points and data we had the chance to raise at the meeting.
Meeting with Department of Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC)
This month we were pleased to meet with officials from the DECC jointly with Money Advice and Budgetary Service (MABS). The meeting focussed on energy poverty, the challenges facing people in arrears, and how government should continue to support people while prices remain high. We will continue this advocacy and our engagement with DECC, the CRU and energy suppliers.
Joint letter to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Alongside 10 other civil society organisations, we signed a joint letter to the Housing Committee asking them to consider the needs of social and private tenants within retrofitting plans, including increasing the scale of local authority retrofitting and the introduction of supports and minimum BER standards in the private rented sector.
Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) V&C Policy Community Launch
We were delighted to attend the first meeting of NICVA’s new Policy Community for the Voluntary & Community sector in Belfast. This was a great opportunity to meet other organisations advocating for social justice and share ideas on how we can support each other in our policy work.
Housing and Homelessness Advocacy
Marcella attended the Oireachtas AV Room in Leinster House recently. Focus Ireland and Professor Eoin O’Sullivan presented on the causes, scale and cost of homelessness in Ireland over the last decade. It was very well attended by members of the Oireachtas Housing Committee. The presentations were excellent and provided useful data to use in our advocacy efforts to end long term homelessness.
Meeting with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality
We attended a meeting with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality as part of our membership of the Community and Voluntary Pillar. It was a useful and informative meeting with department officials. They gave us a helpful overview of the restructure of the department following the new Government. Other discussion points raised by the C&V sector included HSE disability funding, the proposed Equality Bill, and implementation plans for the Early Childhood Education and Care system as outlined in the Programme for Government.
Financial High-Cost Credit Providers
Marcella attended a workshop at the Central Bank on the proposed interest rate cap on high cost credit providers. Following the workshop, the Central Bank are preparing a report for the Minister for Finance. It will outline our experiences of supporting households affected, and our proposed solutions so that low-income households can access affordable credit.
Policy in Focus
This month's policy in focus is child poverty, Spotlight on Child Poverty: Ireland’s Silent Crisis. It gives greater data an insight into child poverty in Ireland today.
Submissions
A key annual submission we deliver to the government is the Pre-Budget ahead of the Budget Day announcement, which is usually the first Tuesday of October.
Along with our colleagues in the voluntary and community sector we launch our submission in July. The Pre-Budget submission is our opportunity to make our recommendations to the government prior to the annual budget, about the policies that would close the poverty gap for the people we provide assistance to and others living in poverty. The recommendations are developed from the calls and assistance members are providing to people.
Shaping a Fairer Future: Social Justice Team Prepares for Budget 2026, goes into greater detail of the teams work and what's ahead for us in our Pre-Budget Submission, click here to read further.
It may not be possible for us to include directly every suggestion we receive, but we would like to hear from you if you have any thoughts for considerations for the pre-budget submission please email socialjustice.newsletter@svp.ie
It would be great for the team to hear what you think is an important policy recommendation. Policy recommendations come out of reasons that cause people to come to us for support repeatedly. If you want to share a recommendation, please read last year's pre-budget submission.
Housing Submission: We prepared a submission to the Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government on the Government’s National Housing Strategy 2025-2030. We set out our vision for the housing sector that would involve all low-income households being able to live in homes that are secure, affordable and accessible. You can read the full submission here: Department-of-Housing-Submission-National-Housing-Plan-May-2025.pdf
What’s on the horizon
Annual Minimum Essential Standards of Living Report Launch
We will be attending the Launch of the Annual MESL report on June 17th and we are pleased to extend and share the invitation to members.
The report launch will reflect an update to the shopping basket for families after extensive research and focus groups.
Details below:
Tuesday, 17th of June,
Georgian Suite, Buswells Hotel, 23-27 Molesworth St, Dublin 2, D02 CT80
Registration from 10.00 with tea & coffee
Proceedings starting at 10.30 to 12.00
Here's the link to the registration form - Register Now here
Education
We’ve been invited to join the DEIS Advisory Group by the Department of Education; the first meeting will be at the end of the month. Membership on the panel gives us the chance to support the progress and provide advice on the implementation of the plan's actions. The group will meet bi-annually, to find out more about the work, click on the here.
Children, Disability and Equality
We are preparing a submission to the Department of Children, Disability and Equality on their new Statement of Strategy 2025-2027. The new strategy will focus on the Minister’s responsibilities following the transfer of Integration and Youth functions from this department. It will also reflect and be informed by the Government’s commitments in the Programme for Government.
UK Government Green Paper: Pathways to Work
This month a key focus for our Northern Region social justice work will be on developing a submission to the UK Government’s consultation on the reform of disability benefits. We are very concerned about the impact of these reforms on the people we assist in Northern Ireland and we will be submitting our recommendations on how the UK Government and the NI Executive can design a better system of support to reduce poverty amongst people with a disability and their families.
Newsletter Feedback
For those in NI, please get in touch with the team if you have any items you wish to make them aware of socialjustice@svpni@co.uk
If you’d like to provide feedback about this newsletter please email, socialjustice.newsletter@svp.ie.
