Sinn Féin Councillors Challenge Minister on Budget Cuts

Sinn Féin Councillors Challenge Minister on Budget Cuts

Sinn Féin councillors Chris O’Leary and Thomas Gould challenged Minister for Social Protection Eamon O Cuiv on the government’s handling of the economy at a public meeting in the Commons Inn Hotel last night. Sinn Féin activists held a peaceful protest outside the venue before and during the event to highlight the government’s failure to produce a coherent jobs strategy and its targeting of the unemployed.

Cllr Thomas Gould challenged the Minister to defend the government’s budgetary policy, saying there was an alternative to cutbacks targeting frontline services and those on social welfare. “Sinn Féin produced a pre-budget submission last year proposing, among other measures, a wealth tax on those with assets over €1 million which would have raised €1.6 billion; standardisation of all tax reliefs, to bring in €1.1 billion; and the phasing out of subsidies to private schools and to private practice in public hospitals. These examples show that there is an alternative; we can tax the wealth which remains in this country and target savings from government subsidies to the private sector and high-paid civil servants rather than penalising the less well off.”

Cllr Chris O’Leary criticised the government’s lack of a clear job creation strategy and said the unemployed and social welfare recipients must be protected in December’s budget. “The government’s response to the jobs crisis seems to be to blame the unemployed. In the last budget jobseeker’s allowance was cut – in the case of some young jobseekers by 50%. Only a few weeks ago the Minister announced that thousands of unemployed people would be forced to do unpaid work or lose the dole. Now the social welfare budget is set to be targeted again as the government looks for over €4 billion in additional cutbacks to pay off international speculators who gambled on Anglo-Irish Bank. Can I suggest to the Minister one very effective way to reduce the social welfare bill? – Create jobs and get people back to work.”

For more information contact Cllr Thomas Gould @ 087/3021551 or Cllr Chris O'Leary @ 087/2794307.