Cabinet forced to reverse ‘foolish’ cutback

THE Government has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown over its controversial cutback in social welfare benefits for widows and widowers.

Lobby groups and the opposition were yesterday confident Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Coughlan would this week announce a reversal of an ill-founded decision aimed at saving a tiny fraction of the multi-billion euro social welfare budget.

Age Action Ireland said yesterday it was heartened by Tánaiste Mary Harney’s weekend comments to distance the PDs from one of the meanest of Ms Coughlan’s ‘Savage 16’ cuts.

With the National Association of Widows of Ireland piling pressure on the Government, Sylvia Meehan of the Senior Citizen’s Parliament criticised the minister’s “foolish” decision to try to salvage €5 million savings from her €11 billion budget by targeting widows and widowers.

Despite rejecting a joint motion by Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party last week, which demanded restoration of the disability, injury and unemployment benefits, Ms Coughlan is keeping the matter under review.

A department spokesperson said yesterday the cutback, which came into effect through a ministerial order last month, remained in operation.

However, Ms Harney strongly signalled the Government was big enough to make a change any time it saw or felt a decision was unfair or harsh.

Fine Gael’s Michael Ring said: “It’s obvious and I’m delighted the Government is planning to reverse the decision. It looks like the PDs, who I thought had no heart or conscience, have a bigger heart and conscience than Fianna Fáil.”

Both the Mayo TD and Labour’s Willie Penrose demanded a reversal of all the ‘Savage 16’ cutbacks.

“If Minister Coughlan is now bowing to pressure and considering reversing the widows’ social welfare cuts, it’s about time she re-examined the entire package of cutbacks with a view to reinstating them all,” said Mr Penrose.

Age Action Ireland’s head of communications, Paul Murray, said the tone of Ms Harney’s comments was to be welcomed.

“We have described these cuts as cruel, callous and contrary to any caring ethos. It was Government in decide-now, think-later mode hitting at the most vulnerable, taking away the half rate payment of disability, injury and unemployment benefit,” he said.

“I think there was a realisation in Government that this particular cut was foolish and ill-founded,” said Ms Meehan. She emphasised the payment to widows and widowers was not a handout but hard-earned through years of contributions.

Mr Penrose said there was no justification for the all the savage cutbacks as end-of-year financial returns showed borrowing was €900m below the project level with tax returns €450m ahead of target.