There is "no moral or political justification" for the €58 million in social welfare cuts planned by the Government, Labour leader Mr Pat Rabbitte said today.
The Book of Estimates published two weeks ago provided for spending of more than €40 billion, but the money lost to 16 schemes will be potentially devastating for those who depend on them, Mr Rabbitte said.
Unveiling a campaign of opposition to the cuts, Mr Rabbitte christened the cuts to be overseen by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, as the "savage sixteen". "There is absolutely no moral or political justification for singling out the poorest sections of Irish society and asking them to carry the burden.
"There are many other sections of Irish society, well cosseted by the generous range of tax reliefs and allowances provided by this Government, who could have forfeited €58 million almost without noticing it," the Labour leader said.
The Minster for Finance, Mr McCreevy's, economic philosophy was informed by a Thatcherite belief "that the poor would not be poor at all if only they tried a little bit harder," he added.
The economic argument for the cuts is flawed, Mr Rabbitte said, because it creates an impediment to single parents seeking accommodation or employment. "It is not in anyone's interest, either taxpayers or those on social welfare, to further impoverish the poor," he concluded.
The party's spokesperson on social and family affairs, Mr Willie Penrose, who is chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social and Family Affairs, is to call a special meeting of the committee to discuss the cutbacks and invite charitable and voluntary bodies to express their concerns about the cuts.