Where sting of the backlash is most likely to hurt Government

“THIS is coming from people who don’t understand poverty, who haven’t experienced poverty, who don’t know what it’s like to be on €200 a week, who don’t know what it is like on a Wednesday evening and no money left in the jar on the sideboard to buy the groceries on Thursday and the payment doesn’t come in until Friday.”

Eamon Gilmore wasn’t offering any real answers on how Labour would bridge the huge gap in public finances, but he was doing what his party does best by tapping into what is likely to be the public reaction to the Bord Snip report, which appears to have taken the knife to the areas affecting the poorest and weakest.

One economist, not involved in writing the report, suggested on RTÉ Radio yesterday that the public would thank the Government if they implemented the proposals necessary and, in so doing, helped the country emerge from the economic crisis.

But far from getting down on their knees in gratitude to the Government and Bord Snip for coming to their rescue, the majority are likely to question why they must pay the price for the pain inflicted by bankers, developers and politicians.

Most of the proposals have political pain written all over them. If, as suggested by Green senator Dan Boyle, “they are all largely adopted”, it is hard to see how the Government could survive. The Green Party has said there are a number of aspects that cause concern. It did not specify other than saying “social policy will obviously be a difficult area”.

Both Government-supporting independent TDs, Jackie Healy Rae and Michael Lowry, represent rural and agriculture-based constituencies and are unlikely to support cuts to the REPS and suckler cow schemes and disadvantages areas grants.

Fianna Fáil backbenchers will come under huge pressure from their constituents not to support the implementation of cuts in health, education and social welfare. There are only so many times they can vote against hugely unpopular cuts if they are to retain any prospect of getting re-elected in what are, in many cases, three-seat constituencies.

Parents in particular will have a lot to worry about with proposals that class sizes are increased and up to 1,000 rural schools closed. Cuts in teachers and school transport for special needs children is likely to cause huge public outrage and will be one of the most difficult recommendations for politicians to agree to, if they want to retain any dignity in the spending cuts exercise.

Proposals to raise the annual school bus ticket from €300 to €500 will anger parents, mostly in rural constituencies, who will also face a reduction of between €30 and €70 in the monthly children’s allowance payment.

The growing number of almost 420,000 people on the dole will see their weekly payments cut by 5% under the proposals in the report, amounting to more than €600 a year.

Recipients under the age of 24 would see their dole payments reduced from €204 a week to €150. Bord Snip also proposes to cut double welfare payments which means that those on the widows or lone parents’ allowances would not be entitled to their half dole payments on top of this.

If there is one issue that could cause a backlash, it could be the charge of €5 on prescriptions for those who previously did not have to pay for them.

All these proposals would be easier to stomach if politicians and top earners appeared to be also taking the pain. But Bord Snip’s recommendations are based on spending cuts rather than tax increases.

There is no proposal to cut the number of TDs, or the pay they receive, and the number of Cabinet ministers stays the same.