Local Labour councillors have wasted no time in chastising the government over what they describe as disastrous proposals made in last week’s Budget.
Carlow’s four Labour representatives, Cllrs Des Hurley, William Paton, William Quinn and Jim Townsend issued a statement this week calling for a government reversal on 30 Budget proposals dubbed ‘the dirty thirty’.
The group also criticised local TDs Mary White and MJ Nolan for their own apparent U-turns after both gave the Finance Minister a standing ovation in the Dáil before later criticising certain aspects of the Budget themselves.
High on the quartet’s hitlist was their shock at Minister Lenihan’s one per cent levy on all income, which they noted included everyone earning an income, including those on the minimum wage.
“It’s absolutely appalling that those who created this current financial crisis have been given a €500 billion plus blank cheque and the ordinary decent hard working man and woman is going to have to pay for the banking sector’s mistakes through this income levy,” they said.
The party also attacked the medical card fiasco, which has seen the government back-peddle this week and introduce significant changes to proposals to revoke mandatory medical cards for the over 70s.
“Many of these pensioners gave up their membership of VHI in anticipation of keeping their medical card for life and they will find it very difficult to get cover from VHI for existing illnesses if they try to rejoin the medical insurance scheme.
“Even the new rules announced by the Taoiseach on Tuesday morning leave pensioners feeling angry and betrayed that they have had to fight to retain a medical card which was theirs by right.”
And the third point of annoyance for local Labour councillors was the the government’s treatment of students across the education sector.
“Students will have to pay more to catch the bus to school, special needs assistants will be a thing of the past, money for substitute teachers is gone, the pupil:teacher ratios are rising, not falling like the government promised, and in a really sneaky move, the government raised the student registration fee from €900 to €1,500 in a back door attempt to reintroduce third level fees for college students.”
Other proposals included in Labour’s so-called ‘dirty thirty’ are the 0.5 per cent increase in VAT, a €200 charge for parking at work, a €44 increase in A&E charges, a €10 tax on international flights, and increases in the qualifications for certain social welfare payments
