No honour, no compassion, no conscience

THE budget was the most infamous con-job ever perpetrated by a government on the poorest and most vulnerable people in this country. No honour, no compassion, no conscience.

Not content with looking for its pound of flesh by attempting to impose the 1% income levy on those scraping by on the minimum wage, our senior citizens, faced with the prospect of the withdrawal of the medical card, were targeted in a merciless way.

Even though the Government has now climbed down somewhat in the face of a national outcry, it should never have even contemplated penalising those who had built up an occupational pension through hard work and prudent management of their finances.