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	The poorest 10pc of people in Ireland have lost almost a fifth of their disposal income since the crash, it has been claimed.</h2>
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		Social Justice Ireland said the gap between the rich and poor has widened, as those with most money only lost 11.4pc of their spare cash.</p>
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		The organisation&#39;s director, Dr Sean Healy, said low and middle-income Ireland had borne the major brunt of adjustments over the past five years.</p>
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		&quot;The situation would be even worse if cuts in services and increased charges were included in calculations,&quot; he warned.</p>
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		The think-tank&#39;s study claimed budgets introduced under the troika programme were regressive, taking more as a percentage of income from those who have the least.</p>
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		It also stated the real impact was more regressive because its calculations do not include the impacts of reductions in services and increased charges, which impact disproportionately on the most vulnerable.</p>
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		&quot;Ireland&#39;s poorest 10pc lost 18.4pc of their real disposable income since the start of the crash in 2008,&quot; said Dr Healy.</p>
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		&quot;By contrast the richest 10pc lost 11.4pc.</p>
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		&quot;The richest 20pc of the population were the only ones whose share of the total disposable income grew significantly in this period.</p>
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		<strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1em;">WIDENING</strong></p>
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		&quot;This confirms the widening gap between low and middle-income Ireland on the one hand, and the richest 20pc on the other.&quot;</p>
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		Michelle Murphy, research and policy analyst with Social Justice Ireland, said Government did have choices and could have introduced fairer budgets.</p>
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		&quot;Ireland had to reduce its budget deficit in recent years but research by the IMF shows that how Ireland&#39;s Government chose to do this was always likely to produce greater inequality and higher levels of unemployment,&quot; she added.</p>
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		<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/poorest-10pc-have-lost-a-fifth-of-their-incomes-since-crash-29800742.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/poorest-10pc-have-lost-a-fifth-of-their-incomes-since-crash-29800742.html</a></p>
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