Fine Gael Labour Plan Wholesale Health, Education and Social Welfare Cuts

[C. Flower]

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...e-2823665.html

Massive budget cuts are being targeted against the unemployed, retired and other people on low incomes, according the the Sunday Independent.
Joan Burton says that unemployment of school leavers is a "life style choice", but doesn't say where they are supposed to find jobs.

Cosy overpayment to crony-run firms and mammoth salaries for " favoured few" will of course continue.

"What we are getting at the moment is people who come into the system straight after school as a lifestyle choice. This is not acceptable, everyone should be expected to contribute and work," Ms Burton said.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Ms Burton said those who failed to cooperate with her department by not taking job or training opportunities would lose up to €44 a week.

Her comments come as savage cuts to services to the poor, schoolchildren, the sick and elderly are among proposals being considered by Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin from his cabinet colleagues.

In what is the first stage of achieving budget cuts of at least €3.6bn, proposals from every cabinet minister presented to Mr Howlin's department in recent days reveal unprecedented cuts to many essential services in health, education and social welfare, which are set to impact most on lower- and medium-income families.

Such hard choices have led to a heightening of tensions around the cabinet table, because of the extraordinary decision by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore to promise that there will be no cuts to social welfare rates or any income tax increases in the budget...

"Some 80 per cent of the education budget goes on pay and pensions. We can't unilaterally cut pay so the only option is to dramatically increase class sizes. There is no other choice," one senior government source said.

Also included in the proposals are:

?Drastic cuts to a host of welfare benefits including rent supplements.

?Primary welfare rates and benefits under threat despite election promises not to cut them.

?Further widespread closures of hospital wards, significant reduction in medical services; cuts to after-care services and agency staff, and a reduction in pay to hospital consultants in order to control costs.

?An aggressive tackling of transport costs with major reduction in budget allocations to state companies, including CIE.

?Increased rail, bus and air fares for passengers cannot be ruled out.

"There is no fat left, the reductions now being considered will hurt considerably, but there is no other option," a senior minister said yesterday.

....

Ms Burton admitted the reductions "did not sit easily with her'' but where the "door was being beaten down by Finance" these were the best options available.

She is concerned by the exponential increase in the numbers availing of welfare benefit schemes and said when it came "to fuel and electricity the numbers who qualify have increased from 265,000 in 2005 to 390,000 by 2011"

.

A lot of people in Ireland are still very well off compared with EU averages, but at no stage have income tax increases been considered as an option by FF, FG, or Labour.

[culmore]

Yes plenty of cuts are needed but they have to start at the top.

[Baron von Biffo]

Yes plenty of cuts are needed but they have to start at the top.

How would you see that working out?

[antiestablishmentarian]

Yes plenty of cuts are needed but they have to start at the top.

She's not mentioning 'cuts at the top', she's singling out the unemployed. There are literally no jobs out there, and people are lucky to have a couple of days work here and there if they can get it. What is cutting the dole going to do, except of course take more money out of the economy for the purposes of paying off debts owed for paying back senior bondholders?

[Andrew49]

This Government, like the previous one, has been faced with making very tough decisions - the present Government, like the previous one, decided to avoid making those tough decisions and concentrated on cuts and excoriation of those who have little chance to defend themselves.

Young jobless people
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

To Follow:

Students
Lone parents
Sick people
Pensioners
Families with children
Anyone dependent on public services

And there was a pledge that this Government would be a 'moral government'; that unlike Fianna Fail and the Green Party it knew right from wrong!

[Baron von Biffo]

Aren't we fortunate that such a right winger didn't get Finance?

[bormotello]

She's not mentioning 'cuts at the top', she's singling out the unemployed. There are literally no jobs out there, and people are lucky to have a couple of days work here and there if they can get it. What is cutting the dole going to do, except of course take more money out of the economy for the purposes of paying off debts owed for paying back senior bondholders?

High taxes wont create any new jobs. Nobody will take a risk and will start own business only to let left wing populist establishment buy votes and pay debts of property developers

[antiestablishmentarian]

We have very low corporate tax rates, employers have had PRSI and VAT cut for them in the 'Jobs Initiative' of May, and on top of this the government is setting up an internship programme which will give them free skilled labour for the price of a letter of recommendation. That business people aren't 'creating jobs' despite all these advantages says more about the stupidity of reliance on the private sector to create jobs than about taxes creating jobs. Btw, many EU countries have higher tax rates on business (like Germany, 35%) and they have far lower unemployment than Ireland.

[Baron von Biffo]

High taxes wont create any new jobs. Nobody will take a risk and will start own business only to let left wing populist establishment buy votes and pay debts of property developers

What left wingers are agitating to have the taxpayer pay the debts of property developers?

[PaddyJoe]

So at least there's an odd person here and there left in the Labour Partty who is actually 'Labour'
Excellent blog post by Cian O'Callaghan:

Unemployment Is Not A ‘Life Style Choice’
Speaking in re-action to comments of Minister Joan Burton in today’s Sunday Independent where she referred to young people leaving school and entering the social welfare system as a ‘life style choice’ Labour councillor Cian O’Callaghan said:
“Young people who leave school and can’t find jobs do not choose unemployment as a ‘life style choice’. Nor are they to blame for our jobs and economic crisis. The responsibility for the crisis lies squarely with a political system that is wrecking our economy by implementing failed policies of cuts and austerity. The facts are that the standardised unemployment rate hit 14.8% in May of this year and that young people are emigrating from Ireland in search of jobs at numbers not seen since the 1980’s. The Government is continuing to implement a public service recruitment ban which is contributing to this high level of unemployment and emigration. Additionally Ireland now suffers from structural unemployment where there is a mis-match between the skill set of many younger people and any jobs that might become available

“The Government would serve us best by bringing forward policies to stimulate growth and create jobs rather than blaming young people for the unemployment crisis. It has always been a key tactic of the political right to blame unemployed people for the lack of jobs. These cynical slurs are then used to lay the basis for launching savage attacks on our welfare system. Yet again we are witnessing a government that is very good at attacking the unemployed, the young, the sick, the weak and the vulnerable and absolutely useless at standing up to wealthy and powerful elites.”

http://cianocallaghan.com/2011/07/un...-style-choice/

[bormotello]

What left wingers are agitating to have the taxpayer pay the debts of property developers?

Could you point me on any left wing politician who is agitating for default?

[bormotello]

We have very low corporate tax rates, employers have had PRSI and VAT cut for them in the 'Jobs Initiative' of May, and on top of this the government is setting up an internship programme which will give them free skilled labour for the price of a letter of recommendation. That business people aren't 'creating jobs' despite all these advantages says more about the stupidity of reliance on the private sector to create jobs than about taxes creating jobs. Btw, many EU countries have higher tax rates on business (like Germany, 35%) and they have far lower unemployment than Ireland.

We don't have any bushiness infrastructure which Germany has. Nobody is making everything in house. You need to have certain number of companies, which can be subcontracted for mechanical, assembling, logistic and other jobs. Germans were creating their infrastructure for two centuries and now benefiting from it, because low cost of doing business can be offset by high taxes. Ireland has nothing, except probably for office type of jobs. If somebody wants to open company, then he has to import everything. It might work for bushinesses with high added value, like medical devices, but there is no way to have much of labour extensive bushinesses for mass production here. All those tax incentives can make some sense for retail businesses, but there are too many of them already
Plus, everybody see that socialists from FG/LP coalition will follow route which have been tried before in 1980's with taxes reaching 80% even if it will hidden behind some form of right wing rhetoric in order to fool foreign bondholders and borrow more to pay for left wing populist policies. Somebody with long term thinking will think twice before opening new business because very soon his net income will be not much different from net pay of low grade clerical officer

[Baron von Biffo]

This is a good forum but the constant dredging up of a "right wing" bogeyman is tedious.

Truly right wing governments in Ireland, the EU and the US would NOT have bailed out private banks.

Fair enough, but if it's purity you want you'll have more luck in a nunnery than a political party.

Terms like right-wing or left-wing are pretty imprecise - by European standards Obama is right wing yet some Americans think he's a socialist.

I think the way they're used here is legitimate and generally understood by most readers.

[PaddyJoe]

This is a good forum but the constant dredging up of a "right wing" bogeyman is tedious.

Truly right wing governments in Ireland, the EU and the US would NOT have bailed out private banks.

Welcome, jefferson That's very true. Real capitalism is supposed to be 'red in tooth and claw'. The 'free market' would have sunk every Irish bank.

[Baron von Biffo]

Could you point me on any left wing politician who is agitating for default?

Nice try B.

I think the onus is on you to tell us who these left wing politicians are whom you claim want us to pay the bankers debts.