Madam, - The recent debate on low-paid jobs in the Irish economy clearly demonstrates this Government's affinity with the Boston rather than the Berlin model of socio-economic management.
The low-paid in this country get a raw deal. An example of this is medical card eligibility. There is a general assumption that people on the national minimum wage qualify for a medical card, but the reality is very different. The qualifying level for a single person is €136 a week - €3.75 an hour! For a couple, the limit is €200 a week or €2.70 an hour individualised, and for a couple and two children €250 a week or €1.70 an hour individualised. One must be impoverished to have a medical card.
The stark reality is that 25 per cent of the population still qualifies on income grounds - a socio-economic underclass. People legitimately on the highest level of social welfare may exceed the medical card eligibility limit but still qualify for a medical card courtesy of an edict from the Minister of Health (good electoral politics), while working people on lower incomes may not. Perverse?
This is the world of "Boston" while 25 million uninsured citizens are in fact blue-collar workers. The result in Ireland is a booming black economy. More and more workers, but mothers especially as the second household worker, are moving into the employment twilight zone to maintain the medical card and its visa to additional benefits such as back-to-school allowances.
The McCreevy/Harney economic philosophy of starving people into work has actually bottomed out and, in this one example of benefits, is proving counter-productive to legitimate employment.
This government has lost touch with reality when working people on lower incomes than those on social welfare are discriminated against in such a glaring manner. - Yours, etc.,
Dr MARTIN KHARE DALY, Ballygar, Co Galway.