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.

Meanwhile, the swingeing cuts in the maximum area for disadvantaged area based payments from 45 hectares to 34 hectares have been largely ignored by commentators. About 2,500 farmers in west Cork and south Kerry will have their payment cut by €1,000.

People in rural communities face real hardship when two other budget hikes are included — the increase in college registration fees and the €140 increase in the school bus ticket.

The lethal combination of the freeze on the early retirement scheme and the chopping of the young farmer installation aid grant of €16,000 can only send the most negative signal to these hopeful new entrants and frustrate the wishes of those who had hoped to retire early and hand over their farms.

Our agricultural colleges had seen an increase in the number of young people disillusioned with the way things were going in the construction sector and were anxious to go into farming. The slashing of the suckler cow payment is a huge disincentive but, more importantly, there is the breakdown in trust because of Tánaiste Mary Coughlan’s promise in December 2007 that this payment would be for €80 per suckler cow “calving from January 2008 onwards. The scheme will operate for a five-year period”. The cutting of the pupil teacher ratio from 18:1 to 19:1 flies in the face of all previous commitments and the scrapping of programmes to help those with special needs is appalling. A plague on all their houses.

Anne O’Leary

Reenrour East

Bantry

Co Cork