Budget - anti-family, unfair and divisive

Posted on December 09, 2009 at 08:33 PM

The Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore TD

The Leader of the Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore TD writes here about the Budget

This is a budget that is viciously anti-family, fundamentally unfair and socially divisive.

Everyone knew that a tough budget would be required because of the unprecedented economic shambles created by Fianna Fail over the past twelve years, but few people could have anticipated a budget that would be so lacking in fairness.

The reduction in child benefit will hit the incomes of most families in the country. An across the board cut in child benefit will hit to low to middle income families particularly hard and runs the risk of plunging even more children into poverty.

This is a budget that mercilessly targets those on low and middle incomes, rather than asking those who are best in position to do so to bear some extra burden. Carers, the unemployed, single parents, those with disabilities, county council workers will all see their meagre basic incomes fall even further. At the same time the best that Fianna Fail can come up with in terms of tax exiles is the imposition of token levy that will cost them little while the ongoing scandal of property based tax reliefs for the wealthy remains untouched

With 413,000 on the Live Register and the Fianna Fail government, in its pre-budget outlook, forecasting the loss of additional 75,000 jobs the few measures aimed at training and education are hopelessly inadequate. Fianna Fail has thrown in the towel on unemployment and abandoned the jobless to the miseries of the dole queue.

Minister Lenihan's budget speech was unique in that it contained far fewer details than normal. He did not even have the courage to announce publicly the cuts to carers and widows and those who have lost their jobs. These, like a lot of other cuts, are buried away in the small print of the budget documentation.

To add insult to injury, the Minister quoted the late Senator Ted Kennedy in a budget which cuts spending for health, education and children - three areas for which Senator Kennedy fought all his life

The real substance of this budget is the cuts in social welfare, including child benefit and the slashing of public servants wages. The real vote on this budget will not be the few financial resolutions that will be taken tonight, but the votes on the Social Welfare Bill and the Bill to cut public service wages over the coming days. That is when the Independents and the Fianna Fail backbenchers will have to decide whose side they are on.

by Eamon Gilmore TD

(The speech delivered by our Spokeperson on Finance, Deputy Joan Burton, will be posted here once it is available; and you can read other spokespeople's responses in our media centre. Do let us know what you think of the Budget in the comments section below.)

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