Budget backlash
The disabled had been singled out and used as “easy targets” in the savage €6 billion cuts package, organisations like Inclusion Ireland warned.
Brian Cowen also threw down a warning to Fianna Fáil rebels he would fight to remain leader of the party.
The opposition launched an attack on the “cruelty” of the budget which Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny said was filled with “financial landmines” for ordinary families.
The National Council for the Blind also condemned the 4% reduction in weekly pensions for the visually impaired, as carers’ groups expressed alarm at the “hardship” across the board benefit reductions and tax changes would inflict.
The Poor Can’t Pay Coalition said the Government had retreated from last year’s attempts to lessen financial pain on the most needy by compensating the unemployed, the sick and lone parents for reductions in Child Benefit.
Social Protection Minister Éamon Ó Cuív defended his stance, insisting that if he had exempted those receiving invalidity and blind pensions and the disability allowance from the 4% reduction, other welfare recipients would have had to make up the shortfall.
But the opposition demanded an urgent rethink as Mr Kenny said the Taoiseach had earned 13 times the minimum wage before the so-called “solidarity Budget” but now would earn 14 times more.
Mr Cowen said: “I am extremely sorry that we are in this situation. Everyone in this country is, and I take a responsibility — as Taoiseach day and night, as leader of the Government, I’ve been seeking to deal with it,” he told RTÉ as speculation continued that Brian Lenihan’s supporters want him to launch a heave against the Taoiseach.
