Madam, - As a group of 12 local women we have done a little research into our collective contribution to the Irish economy - through producing, nurturing, educating and turning out the next generation of workers while working very hard ourselves. Between us, we have 70 living children, who, except for five still in school, are all working productively.
Most are in the service sector: catering, sales, childcare, secretarial services, taxi-driving, security, warehousing and banking. This group of young workers also includes building workers, tradespeople and mechanics, as well as civil servants and two IT workers. We have two in sheltered employment and one in youth work. Another is caring for blind women.
Without this generation of Irish workers the economy would have collapsed. So how are we parents rewarded for so much struggle in the difficult decades? Many of us feel we have now returned to the hard times again, as our children leave and try to set up their own homes (though often they are forced to return to living with parents). We are all involved in childcare, once more on the cheap or for nothing, this time caring for grandchildren. We have been threatened constantly with the loss of medical cards.
Husbands who were unskilled and became redundant are among the long-term unemployed, though some availed of the dignity of temporary Community Employment schemes. In these unfortunately, re-training was not always available or effectively promoted. While they cannot now find employment, they are prevented from availing of seasonal work in gardening or deliveries, since this would involve loss of benefits. The amounts earned on "nixers" in the black economy are derisory and are efficiently policed, in contrast to the huge sums siphoned off in white-collar corruption and legal tax evasion by the very rich.
Is this how Ireland repays people to whom the Celtic Tiger owes its existence and its continuation?
This is not an appeal for hand-outs, but a simple matter of justice. It may seem obvious, but unless someone gives birth to them, workers do not materalise. Tax concessions mean little or nothing to the low-paid, so more creativity is called for on Budget day to help foster a fairer and more inclusive Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
MAUREEN TALBOT, Chairperson, Mountainview Women Together, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.