A call for carers' allowances and old age pensions to be increased by 10 per cent has been made by SIPTU's national equality officer, Ms Rosheen Callender. She has also warned the Government that the next budget must be poverty-proofed along the lines proposed by the National Economic and Social Forum (NESF) in its recent report.
Speaking yesterday, Ms Callender sent a strong signal from the State's largest union as to what it considers to be the minimum requirements if the next budget is to comply with the terms of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF). The last budget produced by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, was in the hiatus between Partnership 2000 and the PPF. It attracted strong criticism from the unions, and Ms Callender said that it had shown a "blatant disregard for the poor and lower paid".
The NESF report showed that 22 per cent of the population was living below the poverty line and 10 per cent of households were experiencing consistent poverty. "At a time when there are unprecedented levels of wealth and prosperity, ample resources for tackling poverty and a clear strategy to assist the Government in doing so, it is nothing short of scandalous that over 20 per cent of our people are still living below the poverty line, with women and children at greatest risk," Ms Callender said.
"Economic growth does not, of itself, reduce inequality. Indeed, very determined action is needed to ensure that inequality does not grow as prosperity increases.
"This Government has failed to take such action and Budget 2000 worsened matters by blatantly favouring the rich and disregarding the needs of the poor and lower paid.
"The Government's failure to tackle the inflation crisis is further aggravating the problems of poverty and inequality.
"SIPTU is calling on the Minister for Finance to engage directly with the unions and other social partners to ensure that Budget 2001, in contrast with his previous budgets, is fully poverty- and equality-proofed.
"In this context, we are putting forward a number of priority demands, including: immediate action on inflation, including compensation for inflation by issuing pension bonds via the social insurance system; increasing the payments to pensioners and carers by at least 10 per cent; increasing payments for all other social welfare recipients by at least 8.5 per cent; raising monthly child benefit rates to between £50 and £70; introducing tax relief for childcare costs and treating earned income more favourably."
Ms Callender said the latter could be done by raising income tax thresholds, easing welfare means tests, raising income disregards and improving the family income supplement and medical card income guidelines.
"This is by no means an exhaustive list of what can be done in present circumstances to reduce poverty and inequality. To do nothing - as has been the inclination of this Government - is to relegate those who contributed to the Celtic Tiger to second-class citizens with no hope of ever reaping the benefits of Ireland's booming economy," she said.
A meeting of the executive committee of SIPTU's south-east region has issued a warning that any PAYE tax concessions must not be cancelled out or negated by the introduction or extension of local taxes or service charges. The committee has instructed the regional secretary, Mr Mike Jennings, to write formally to SIPTU's national officers, asking them to raise this issue in the next regular review of the PPF.