REACTION:THE 2010 Budget is "breathtakingly unjust" and will damage Ireland's economic and social development, Fr Seán Healy, director of Social Justice Ireland, has said.
The Budget was anti-poor, anti-family, anti-youth and anti-children, he said.
“Decisions taken in Budget 2010 mean that Ireland’s poor and vulnerable people are being condemned to deeper poverty which may well persist for a lengthy period of time, while those who created many of the county’s current problems are either being rewarded or ignored,” he said.
Meanwhile, a prominent policy analyst has warned that a “Copernican shift” was needed in the way the newly unemployed were treated if “long-term damage to the mental health of huge swathes of the population” was to be avoided.
John Sweeney, senior policy analyst with the National Economic and Social Council, yesterday addressed a post-Budget meeting hosted by the Wheel, an umbrella of NGOs working with poor and vulnerable groups.
Urging that the economic crisis not be “wasted”, he said radical reform of public services was needed. “We are already taking steps in the wrong direction,” he said.
Describing those losing jobs as the “largest and most poignant group in the current downturn”, he said they were being treated with suspicion and punishment.
It was not the unemployment figures that merited attention, but the duration of unemployment. Even when Ireland had emerged from the last recession, there were huge numbers who remained unemployed. They had become “demoralised” and “dispirited” and had effectively withdrawn from the workforce. “Long-term unemployment feeds depression, poverty, family discord,” Mr Sweeney added
Today, almost 70 per cent of those on jobseeker benefits had “at least a Leaving Certificate” qualification. Their work ethic should not be questioned, he said.
Fr Healy said the Government had chosen to reduce the income of large numbers of Ireland’s poorest people while “wasting money on a useless scrappage scheme” that would have no significant impact on emissions but would see most of the money going to overseas manufacturers.
There was no credible employment package or economic stimulus in the Budget and while the energy efficient retro-fitting programme was welcome, it was nowhere near the scale required to provide an effective jobs stimulus he said.
The decision not to raise taxes was a particularly retrograde step, Mr Sweeney added, and meant the poor were taking a far bigger hit in the Budget than the well off.
“The failure to raise the total tax-take substantially towards the EU average is the main reason that Government does not have the income to protect the country’s social services or promote its economy.”
Cuts in the budget for social housing and supports would make it more difficult for many people to keep a roof over their head, he added.
Enable Ireland said people with disabilities were also now at greater risk of poverty because of cuts to the disability allowance.
“Government has made commitments to people with disabilities under the NDS [National Disability Strategy] which were repeated as recently as October in the renewed programme for government. We would urge the Government to honour these.”
Laura's Story: "I bought the van with my disability money. I saved up. But I'm still replaying it. I'm worried I won't be able to keep up the payments."
At 30 years old, Laura Dempsey had hoped to soon move out of her parent's house in Tallaght and into a place of her own. Following the 4.1 per cent cut in the disability allowance that ambition will have to go on hold, she says. "It's something I had been planning for in the next two to three years. At 30 you don't necessarily want to be still living with your parents, but with paying rent and the stuff you'd need for a new place, I can't see how it would happen now."
She has, however, a more immediate concern, the risk that she might lose her recently-bought van that can accommodate her wheelchair.
"I bought the van with my disability money. I saved up, but I'm still repaying it as well and I'm worried now that I won't be able to keep up the payments."
Her family is being hit on the double she says because the carer's allowance her mother collects is also being cut.
"Most other people my age who are living at home give their parents money, but I'm sitting there in my mam and dad's house and the benefit was my way of being able to give them money for the things in the house I use but they have to pay for."
Setting aside money for socialising or holidays now seems impossible, she says. "I've a sister living in England and an auntie in Wales and at the moment I can pay for my own flights to go and see them. I don't know if I'll be able to do that anymore, and really if they keep cutting back I don't know what life is going to be like."