Galway’s Government TDs are being challenged to “not heap further hardship on working families and vulnerable citizens” by voting against Budget 2013.
Sinn Féin Galway senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh has challenged Labour’s Derek Nolan to “do the right thing” and vote against the Social Welfare Bill - including cuts to child benefit - which comes before the Dáil tomorrow.
Meanwhile Fianna Fáil agriculture spokesperson and Galway West TD Éamon Ó Cuív is urging Labour and Fine Gael TDs in both Galway East and West to vote against the “callous cuts” to the respite care grant.
Sen Ó Clochartaigh argues that Budget 2013 targets low and middle income earners and he went on to describe it as an “all-out attack on families, children, the elderly and in particular women”, adding, “the cut to the respite care grant is wrong, unjustifiable and mean spirited.”
He said that during the 2011 election campaign, Dep Nolan “promised to protect working families and vulnerable citizens in this constituency from unfair policies. “I am calling on Derek Nolan TD to do the right thing by the people who elected him,” he said.
Dep Ó Cuív is calling on the county’s Government TDs to take a stand against cuts to the respite care grant.
According to the Connemara based TD, the 20 per cent cut to the rate means almost 3,500 Galway carers will be down €6.50 a week or €325 a year. He also noted that 292 carers in Galway receive no other payment from the State.
“This is just the latest callous cut in what has been a sustained and targeted attack on people with disabilities, their families and their carers over the past year,” said Dep Ó Cuív. “In the space of just 18 months, Fine Gael and Labour have returned to the disability sector again and again for deeply unfair cuts that have an enormous impact on the health and independence of people who desperately need support.”
