Shakedown: Low-paid and the poor hit hardest as TDs escape cuts

THE low-paid and the poor have been hardest hit by a savage budget that spared no one except the TDs needed to vote it through.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan chopped social welfare payments and hiked taxes — but decided TDs on €92,672 a year did not warrant a further pay cut.

Instead, he targeted families, middle-income earners, the low-paid and the poor as he introduced a €6 billion combination of tax hikes and spending cuts.