An Equal Ireland is dead and gone – it is with the Celtic Tiger in the grave: or is it? Could it ever exist?  Can we create a more equal society in times of recession? Many more children, families and individuals in our communities are facing mental ill health, mounting debt, poverty and marginalisation. Is the creation of deeper inequalities inevitable?

Equality and why it works better for everyone is the key themes of the annual conference and AGM of the Irish Association of Social Workers. Taking place on Friday the 27^th of May 2011 at the Gresham Hotel in Dublin, the event will be opened by Fintan O’Toole, columnist and assistant editor at the Irish Times and will be addressed by Professor Richard Wilkinson (co-author of The Spirit Level) and  Dr Sara Cantillon ( co-author of Equality- from Theory to Action).          

Declan Coogan, Spokesperson for the IASW and lecturer in Social Work at NUI Galway, stated that this year’s conference takes place in the context of rising unemployment, the increasing worries about individual, family and social debt burdens and the impact of increasing inequalities on individuals, families and communities. “Social workers are committed to equality and justice” he said “not simply because it feels right and good, but because there is strong evidence that an equal society is better for everyone. The Irish Association of Social Workers conference will focus on the negative impact inequality has on all of us, the evidence that equality works and on what we can do to help make equality a reality”.   

A new Guide for Good Practice for Working with Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People, developed in conjunction with GLEN, will also be launched at the conference.

What/ When is it? The Irish Association of Social Workers annual conference and AGM takes place on Friday the 27^th of May 2011, starting at 9.15am. Further details are available through the website: http://www.iasw.ie

Where is it? The Gresham Hotel, O’Connell St., Dublin 1.

Media Access/Information?

Declan Coogan, spokesperson for the Irish Association of Social Workers and lecturer in social work at NUI Galway  can be contacted at 01 6774838 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  for further information about media access during the conference.

Additional Background Information.

Fintan O’Toole is an assistant editor of, and a columnist with, The Irish Times. He has been drama critic of In Dublin magazine, The Sunday Tribune, the New York Daily News, and The Irish Times and Literary Adviser to the Abbey Theatre. His work has appeared in many international newspapers and magazines, including The New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, Granta, The Guardian, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Richard Gerald Wilkinson has played a formative role in international research on the social determinants of health and on the societal effects of income inequality. He studied economic history at LSE before training in epidemiology. He is Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham Medical School, Honorary Professor at UCL and a Visiting Professor at the University of York. Richard co-wrote The Spirit Level with Kate Pickett and is a co-founder of The Equality Trust. 

Dr Sara Cantillon is Director of the Equality Studies Graduate Programme and is a founding member of the UCD School of Social Justice. Her main areas of research are poverty and gender, intra-household resource allocation and the economics of inequality. She is co-author of Equality from Theory to Action (Palgrave, 2009) and has articles specifically on intra-household issues in the Journal of Social Policy.