Ireland saves 3bn euro

[hopi watcher]

Something specifiic please - enough catchphrases. What EXACTLY should be done?

Exactly, equality of opportunity.

[hopi watcher]

Don't exaggerate!

How can you call them poor if they smoke, drink, some own cars etc?

...and they can dress themselves too. I passed a guy the other day on the street and it was clear to a blind man that he was penniless-and he was smoking a butt. Appearances can be disceptive.

[Kevin Parlon]

It has been well proven that bad design, as in Ballymun causes unrest among the people who live there. Strange it may well seem but the housing environment we live in affects our behaviour.

This has even been incorporated into games like the SIM's.

If I may offer a criticism of this analysis; you seem to be more interested in criticising the state for somehow failing to provide for these people adequatly rather than criticising the culture that gives rise to their predicament. Namely recidivist criminality, irresponsibility, contempt for authority, multi-generational welfare dependency and indolence.

These sinkholes are the product of too much state intervention not inadequate state intervention.