The release of the latest estimates from the Department of Finance in the Stability Programme Update illustrates in cold figures in whose interests austerity is being implemented. The figures prove that society and the economy are being destroyed so that the bondholders will be repaid.
THE FIANNA Fail and Green government would like you to believe that the budget has hit everyone equally, but this is a bared-faced lie. The two budgets we’ve had so far in 2009 have cost the "average family" approximately €7,000 a year. Every section of the working class and middle class were hit by the budget.
An Bord Snip Nua, headed by the neo-liberal economist Colm McCarthy, has given the government a vast menu of potential cuts from which to choose for this December’s budget. The target is to cut €5.3 billion a year from public expenditure. STEPHEN BOYD analyses the situation.
December's budget will see an unleashing of new assaults on public services and living conditions for working class people, writes Paul Murphy MEP. The government and the Labour Party in particular, will declare that unfortunately, there was no other choice. This is a lie.