Royal Irish Academy Conference: Spatial Justice and the Irish Crisis 23 April, 2013, Academy House The on-going crisis and associated responses to it (political, governance, popular etc.) provides an entry point for a wide-ranging exploration of spatial justice as a theoretical construct and a departure point for empirical analysis. Discourses of justice, equality and fairness remain central to a range of interconnected debates as Ireland seeks to recover from the interrelated collapses of the banking system and property markets and the knock on effects through the rest of society and the economy. Scale is an important dimension in framing and constructing popular discourses concerning issues of justice, e.g. the role of EU institutions in shaping Ireland’s treatment of banking debt or the impact of national budgetary measures on particular places. The focus of this conference is on understanding these spatially connected processes, how they are functioning at different scales, their impact on particular or specific places and spaces, as they give rise to new or evolving social and economic geographies.

1. Child Poverty, Urban
Regeneration and
Environmental Justice
Des McCafferty
Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
Eileen Humphreys
University of Limerick

2. Outline of presentation
• Child poverty in Ireland
• Children in disadvantaged areas: child
outcomes in Limerick’s regeneration
estates
• Children and environmental justice
• Reflections on the regeneration
programme

3. National social target for poverty
reduction (2012)
• To reduce consistent poverty to 4 per cent
by 2016, and to 2 per cent or less by 2020,
from a baseline rate of 6.2 per cent in
2010
• Two sub-targets:
– To reduce the differential in the consistent
poverty rates for children and adults
– To reduce the concentration of the
consistently poor in jobless households

4. Poverty indicators 2006-2011
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
PercentageofPopulation
At risk of poverty rate
Deprivation rate
Consistent poverty rate

5. Child poverty indicators

6. Consistent poverty by household
composition
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
1 adult aged
65+
1 adult aged
<65
2 adults, at
least 1 aged
65+
2 adults both
aged <65
3 or more
adults
1 adult with
children aged
<18
2 adults with 1-
3 children
aged <18
Other
households
with children
Rate(%)
2009
2010
2011

7. Research Objective:
To explore the needs and
experiences of children and
families in Limerick City, with a
particular emphasis on
communities targeted for
assistance under the Limerick
regeneration initiative
Research Team:
IKOS Research and Consultancy
(Eileen Humphreys) and Mary
Immaculate College (Des
McCafferty and Ann Higgins)
Commissioned By:
Limerick City Children’s Services
Committee

8. Regeneration areas
Disadvantaged control
Average control

9. The regeneration estates
Moyross
O’Malley Park, SouthillBallinacurra Weston
St. Mary’s Park

10. Survey of parents / carers and
children
Area Sample of Parents
/ Carers (N)
Child Sample
(N)
Northside Regeneration 119 42
Southside Regeneration 90 23
Disadvantaged Control 104 39
Average control 105 24
Total 418 128
Note: The survey of parents / carers enquired in all cases about a
‘reference’ child in the family. This child may not have been the same
as the child interviewed in the child survey

11. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
N'side
Regen
S'side RegenDisadv. Area Average
Area
All Areas
%
r
e
s
p
o
n
d
e
n
t
s
Single / never married
Married / Cohabiting
Divorced / separated /
widowed
Marital status of parent / carer

12. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
N'side Regen S'side Regen Disadv Area Average Area All Areas
%parents/carers
Lower Sec
Up Sec / Vocational
Graduate
Parent / carer: highest level of
educational qualification

13. Main source of household income
23.3
16.9
51
87.5
45.4
76.7
83.1
46.9
12.5
54.1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
N'side
Regen
S'side
Regen
Disadv Area Average
Area
All Areas
%parents/carers
Wages or salaries from work
Social Welfare Payments
Other

14. Community social capital: Knowing
and trusting most people
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
N'side
Regen
S'Regen Disadv Area Average
Area
All Areas
%
p
a
r
e
n
t
s
/
c
a
r
e
r
s
Know most
Trust most

15. Rating of the neighbourhood as a
place to bring up a family
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
N'side
Regen
S'side
Regen
Disadv
Area
Average
Area
All Areas
%
p
a
r
e
n
t
s
/
c
a
r
e
r
s
Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
Very poor

16. Child perceptions of
neighbourhood safety
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
N'side
Regen
S'side
Regen
Disadv
Area
Average
Area
All Areas
%
c
h
i
l
d
r
e
s
p
o
n
d
e
n
t
s
I feel safe when I go outside
I'm afraid to go out
There are lots of mean kids
living here

17. Children’s wishes to stay or
move
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
N'side
Regen
S'side
Regen
Disadv Area Average
Area
All Areas
%
c
h
i
l
d
r
e
s
p
o
n
d
e
n
t
s
I like where I'm living
I want to move

18. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
N'side
Regen
S'Side
Regen
Disadv
Area
Average
Area
All Areas
%
r
e
s
p
o
n
d
e
n
t
s
Excellent
Good - healthy a few
minor problems
Fair - sometimes quite
ill
Poor - almost always ill
Parent / carer’s assessment of
sample child’s health

19. Total difficulties scale (SDQ):
Normality ranges and comparison
29.1
33.3
14.8
7
21.1
8 7
5.8
14.1
9.1
7
8.7
5
8
65 52 76.1 86 70 87 85
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
N'side
Regen
S'side
Regen
Disadv
Area
Average
Area
All Areas US IRL
%
s
a
m
p
l
e
c
h
i
l
d
r
e
n
Normal 0-13
Borderline 14-16
Abnormal 17-40

20. Environmental Justice
• Initial focus on inequalities in the exposure of
individuals and communities to environmental
risks and hazards, and, consequently
environmental health
• More recently broadened to include differences in
the availability of, and access to, environmental
resources
• In the context of child poverty specifically,
Hornberg and Pauli (2007) argue for a more
holistic interpretation, to include dimensions such:
– The absence or degradation of green spaces and
parks
– Inequalities arising from aspects of the socio-
economic environment e.g., differences in levels of
social capital and social networks

21. An issue of environmental justice?
• Children in the regeneration areas
experience an environment which is deficient
in many respects, including:
– The lack of safe play areas
– [Perceived] inability to go out in safety
– Exposure to bullying and other negative peer
pressures
• This environment is created by wider socio-
spatial processes
– Polarisation of the labour market
– Segregation in the housing market
– Spatial concentration of social problems

22. An issue of environmental justice?
• Children are the least independently
mobile section of the population and
therefore the most affected by the quality
of the neighbourhood environment
• They are also relatively voiceless and
powerless
• The environment in the regeneration
estates may well be hazardous to their
health and development (the SDQ scale)

23. Summary
• Problems created
by wider social
processes
• Inability to influence
or to move away
• Adverse and long-
term effects on
well-being
√
√
√

24. Regeneration to date:
New housing in Moyross

25. Regeneration to date:
Demolition and clearance in Southill
February, 2010 April, 2013

26. Population change 2006-2011
selected Electoral Districts
ED /
Regeneration
Area
2006 2011 % Change
Ballynanty ED* /
Moyross
1,211 863 -28.8
John’s A / St.
Mary’s Park
3,468 2,918 -15.9
Galvone B /
Southill
1,558 878 -43.6
Prospect B* /
Ballinacurra
Weston
1,031 751 -27.2
* Not all of the ED lies within the regeneration boundaries

27. Conclusions
• The regeneration programme has been a victim of
the crisis: roughly €120m spent compared to
€3.1b planned
• No certainty that the planned building programme
would have succeeded – e.g., would social mix
have been achieved? – nevertheless...
• Families now living in estates with high levels of
vacant / demolished buildings
• New issues of threats to community services (e.g.
crèches) due to declining numbers
• Importance - as a matter of environmental justice -
of retaining supports for these communities