THE Government will have less scope for tax cuts in the Budget because of the cost of its anti crime measures, the Minister for Social Welfare warned yesterday.
Mr De Rossa also warned that the civil rights of ordinary people should not be trampled on in the present atmosphere. And he called for preventive and treatment projects to accompany other anti crime measures.
He was speaking at a conference in Dublin organised by the European Anti Poverty Network.
Echoing remarks made by the Minister for Finance earlier this week, Mr De Rossa said that "hard choices have to be made."
If the choice was between investment in society and the criminal justice system or major tax cuts, "I will argue for the necessary investment," he said. "We owe no less to the vulnerable people in our society."
"I want to say bluntly to those parties in opposition that no one can credibly demand such a major and essential social investment and at the same time foster an expectation of swingeing tax cuts for everyone in next year's Budget. It does not add up."
On civil rights, Mr De Rossa said that "with the public traumatised by the murders of Veronica Guerin and Garda McCabe, the most irresponsible thing this or any government could do would be to trample all over the painfully acquired civil rights of our ordinary citizens."
"Our parliament must protect the citizen from the criminals," he said. "It must also protect the citizen from the exercise of undue powers by the State."
In its anti crime package, the Government was seeking to vindicate the basic right of people to peaceful occupation of their homes, streets and neighbourhoods.
"We must, however, go much further we must vindicate the rights of people to a job, to an adequate income, to appropriate housing, and to an environment which is safe and secure for young and old alike."
It was vital to tackle demand as well as supply, he said. That meant "treatment centres, early interventions for young people at risk, sophisticated and targeted anti drugs education programmes and, above all, attractive alternatives in life, such as satisfying jobs and access to leisure activities."
He said that people who opposed the location of drug treatment centres in their areas were allowing fear to blot out common sense, "because if we don't treat our local addicts locally we are hiding from reality, and the problem will grow and engulf whole communities as we have seen already in parts of our capital city."