"It's not us and them, it's us together," says inner city's John McKeon - скачать в хорошем качестве

"It's not us and them, it's us together," says inner city's John McKeon -

Hailing from Dublin's inner city, John McKeon, secretary general at the Department of Social Protection, experienced poverty growing up and saw most of his classmates wind up in Mountjoy prison. Speaking at this year's Social Inclusion Forum, he said, "Sometimes when people talk, they talk in an us and them scenario. It's not us and them, it's us together." He assured advocates for people struggling against poverty and discrimination that civil servants also "have our own lived experience". "Don't assume that we don't know what it takes to be a carer, or what it means to be a person with a disability," he said. Deprivation rates between 2014 and 2024 have "more or less halved, the risk of poverty has more or less halved. It's not where we'd like them to be, but the data shows we're getting there," he said. While "we need to recognise the progress that's been made" on social inclusion, he said that meant little to people who were still experiencing poverty and exclusion. New efforts to reach the hardest-to-reach people were promised. This year's Social Inclusion Forum was the 20th iteration of the forum and it was John's 13th time in attendance. The event was held in Croke Park, on May 8.