Frosty reception for emergency Budget

There has been a negative reaction from much of the Irish public as they digest the implications of today's emergency Budget.

Co Wicklow Garda, Declan Lynch, 49, said he was angered by the targeting of lower-income vulnerable workers.

The 28-year veteran of the force singled out the doubling of the income levy as one of his biggest gripes.

“I am absolutely irritated beyond belief,” he said. “This Government has lost the run of itself.

“I don’t understand why they are hitting middle income people with doubling levies and then dropping thresholds.

“The guards, from my perspective have been hit by between €50 and €75 (a week), in a rough estimate.

“They’re cutting childcare, there are a lot of people in our organisation with young children and big mortgages, and now they’re hitting what I would call the most vulnerable people.

“I find that I am really angry. I don’t mind paying for these things... but it is the gross unfairness.”

Peter Hally worked at an architect’s firm in Dublin until he was suddenly made redundant last November.

The 29-year-old, who has been on the Job Seekers Allowance since January, said he did not think the Budget was as bad as he expected.

“I expected the Job Seekers to go under the €200 a week mark, but it didn’t, which is good,” said the technician.

“But my girlfriend’s wages will be hit by the extra 2% tax rate.

“That’s quite a bit when she is trying to pay the mortgage for the two of us on a house we bought last year.

“Unfortunately I get means-tested on her salary, but she doesn’t benefit from my tax credits.

“They treat us like a married couple when it suits them but not at other times.

“Unfortunately I am a smoker, but I was expecting a much bigger amount to be put on cigarettes.”

Successful restaurateur Niall McMahon, 30, owner of Alfie’s on Dublin’s South William Street, has been bucking the retail trend and reporting a steady increase in business since opening last June.

Yet he claimed the doubling of the income levies will have a knock-on effect on consumer spending, branding the Budget “smash and grab”.

“This is going to hit everybody. If you take an average householder on €36,000/€37,000, it’s going to cost another €220 a month.

“It effects me because you would have a couple coming out spending €80/€90 a meal for two. They might have come out every Saturday night, now they might come out every second Saturday night.

“They might even start doing it once a month.

“The whole Budget took me as smash and grab, trying to get in as much money as fast as possible.”