There is growing unease among Irish taxpayers about where their taxes go.
As more jobs are lost, pay packets cut, and life generally is getting more difficult, the ordinary taxpayer feels increasing contempt towards this Government.
We are being taxed both directly and indirectly, our disposable income is depleting, yet the cost of living doesn’t appear to be reducing at a similar rate.
It’s increasingly difficult for householders to keep their heads above water. They have to fend off greedy employers who are using this economic downturn as an excuse to slash wages. Granted, there are cases where this is necessary to save jobs, but there are plenty of unscrupulous employers who are only too delighted to maintain the same profit levels they have grown used to at the expense of their hardworking employees.
As the recession deepens we are told that Ireland will be one of the last countries to recover because we must wait for the US, the UK, and the rest of Europe to recover before the knock on effects will be felt here.
What is really beginning to niggle the Irish taxpayer is the amount of social welfare that is being paid out to people who are long-term unemployed. That does not include a new spectrum of social welfare recipients who have lost their jobs in recent times. These people want to work but the tide has turned against them and left them on the scrap heap. For now.
However there are thousands more who are content to be drawing the dole and who saw their dole cheques, along with the rest of the payments they pocket every month from our hard paid taxes, get bigger and fatter. When times were good we were proud of how well we looked after the unemployed. They say the measure of a country is how they care for the most underprivileged in society. This is true.
But while many of those are underprivileged due to no fault of their own, there are thousands more who are lazy and content to keep taking handouts. They may as well put their hands straight into our pockets and take it directly from there. Because that’s where their funds are coming from anyway. True, there are no jobs. But what’s needed is a programme of work which would instil some civic pride in these people. They should be made contribute to society a few days a week. Nobody should be given money for nothing. Most of us work for a living but for those who don’t, never did, and don’t intend to, it’s time the Government said stop and made them contribute something to society in the form of community service.
It has to be stressed that these people are the minority. We all know family and friends who have joined the dole queue against their wishes. They will return to employment or education at the first opportunity. It’s those who never intend to work who should give something back.
Toni Bourke Editor [email protected]
