Widows take cuts protest to Dáil

HUNDREDS of hard- pressed Irish widows are to descend on Leinster House in Dublin tomorrow to protest against the avalanche of welfare cuts and tax increases faced by their members and others.

The protest, due to begin at noon, will highlight the abolition last year of the Christmas bonus as well as swingeing cuts to social welfare benefits and disability payments.

“We will be registering our objection to continual cuts,” said Ena Bunyan, the PRO of the National Association of Widows in Ireland.

“We held a seminar last month and following that it was decided that the most effective way to make our voice heard was to take our message to Leinster House.

“Our protest will not be entirely about widows either, as many of these cuts affect tens of thousands of others, and we would welcome support from a variety of organisations.”

Each of the association’s 30 branches is expected to be represented at the demonstration, which is expected to last about four hours.

“The cut in the Christmas bonus is particularly hard to deal with as it affects thousands of widows, and that payment is something that we had lobbied for hard over the years,” said Ms Bunyan, from Listowel, Co Kerry.

“We also fear that, with the imposition of property tax and the rise in VAT and other tax increases, matters will only get worse.”

* For more information see nawi.ie.