Economy
Budget Dole Cut: Government Cancel’s Christmas
By Helen Redwood
“THERE’S NO way of preparing for Christmas, that bonus is actually Christmas”. This reaction from one single parent spells out what the Scrooge-like scrapping of the Christmas bonus will mean for the 1.3 million people previously eligible.
Minister Lenihan’s “justification” that prices are falling won’t compensate for a time of year when everything goes up – prices, fuel bills, pressure to buy presents, costs of travelling to relatives.
Action not “social solidarity” will defeat budget attacks
By Stephen Boyd
COMMENTING ON the aftermath of the budget, Stephen Collins political editor of The Irish Times said: “This year the silence has been eerie, mainly because the large body of PAYE workers who are being hammered by the budget have no one to directly represent their interests.”
Six hundred thousand of those PAYE workers are members of trade unions and yes, they aren’t being represented by their “leaders.” Aside from a few comments bemoaning aspects of the budget, there was an “eerie silence” from the so-called leaders of the trade union movement.
Deflationary budget will cost jobs and fuel recession
By Kevin McLoughlin
AT THE start of his speech, Brian Lenihan talked about taking from each according to their means. It sounded as if he was just to about to quote Karl Marx. Alas, very quickly it became clear that he was once again putting his hands deep into the pockets of the working class. His imposition of huge tax increases represents a savage cut in wages.
Budget: €90 billion bailout for the super rich
By Michael Murphy
IN A graphic validation to the old adage “one law for the rich and one for the poor”, the decision of the Fianna Fail/Green Party government to buy the bad debts from the Irish banks for up to €90 billion while making cuts to the poorest sections of society in the form of social welfare Christmas payments and rent allowance is a scandal.
Joe Higgins v Jim Power debate
Budget savages workers
By Stephen Boyd
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.
Stop subsidising the rich – tax them!
By Ann-Katrin Orr
THE GOVERNMENT have come up with yet another outrageous claim; this time we are expected to believe that the rich pay their fair share of taxes!
Brian Lenihan is trying to paint the image of a “highly progressive” Irish taxation system in which those who earn most pay most. To back up his claim he said that the top 1% of earners (who earn more than €200,000) pay 20% of all income tax. But this figure is misleading and Lenihan’s description of the taxation system is miles removed from reality.
Don’t Bail out the Banks – Use bank profits to “bail out” society!
By Michael Murphy
THE DECISION by the government to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank and now recapitalise AIB and Bank of Ireland (BOI) to the tune of €7 billion of tax-payers’ money is an attempt to shore up the Irish banking system. All Irish banks are on very shaky ground.
Unemployment heads towards 500,000 – Demand jobs not dole!
By Paul Murphy
JANUARY 2009 saw the worst ever increase in unemployment. Those signing on to the live register rose by 36,500 to a total of 327,900. Brian Cowen has admitted that unemployment could reach 400,000 by the end of the year, but if it continues at that rate it could pass the half a million mark by the end of 2009.
“This week the queue was out the door – again”
Derek, an unemployed electrician spoke to the Socialist about the difficulties he has encountered “signing on”.
