No commitment from Taoiseach to reverse cuts

BUDGET cuts to Family Income Supplement (FIS) for hundreds of low-paid families will drive many of them “over the brink”, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has warned.

He yesterday urged Taoiseach Enda Kenny to reverse the cuts, saying they would have a devastating impact on families caring for loved ones.

But Mr Kenny said the Government had advised, in advance, the budget would affect every single citizen in the country and that there were no “easy choices”.

Mr Martin raised the matter in the Dáil, saying he and other TDs had received letters from constituents affected by the cuts.

FIS is a support payment for low-paid employees with children. The changes affect those on FIS who also receive Carer’s Allowance.

Up to the budget, the allowance was not regarded as means when calculating rates of FIS. But that is now changing, meaning recipients of carer’s allowance who also receive FIS will see the latter payment reduced.

Mr Martin said he had received a letter from one woman who had four children under 11, one of whom had autism and another who was being assessed for the disorder. Her husband, the sole breadwinner, earned a low wage and the FIS cut meant the family would be €139 a week worse off, Mr Martin said.

He cited the case of another family who would lose €140 a week, and said there was “no justification” for cuts of this scale.

Mr Kenny said all the decisions taken by the Government in the budget had been “unpalatable”.

He said the Government had made it clear that “no single citizen would be left untouched” by the budget.

But he insisted that the coalition had tried to “balance it out in as fair a way as possible”.

He also pointed out that the Government had taken some measures to ease the pressure on the lowest-paid, by excluding 330,000 workers from the universal social charge and reversing the previous administration’s cut to the minimum wage.

Mr Kenny finished by inviting Mr Martin to send him the correspondence from the families affected by the FIS changes.

But a Government spokesman last night stressed that the Taoiseach had made no commitment of any kind to reverse the cuts, either for individual families or across the board.