McCarthy challenged to live on €193 a week

I WISH to challenge Colm McCarthy and his well-off ‘Bord Slash’ to come and live in Ballymun or Finglas in Dublin for a month on the €193 per week on which he expects more than 500,000 social welfare recipients to survive.

McCarthy is no independent economist. He has right-wing form. He was the ‘M’ in DKM, one of the cheerleaders of the property bubble and an advocate of tax cuts (the cause of the boom and bust).

He supported the privatisation of the Westlink toll bridge which resulted in a €25m bridge costing taxpayers and motorists €1,200m — a 4,700% overspend, I think].

He is an advocate of the “Ricardian equivalence” right-wing economic mantra which rules out an economic stimulus to help get us out of the current recession.

China is undergoing a V-shaped recession because of stimulus policies; similarly, the US looks like its downturn will be U-shaped.

Due to timidity, Britain is on the letter W, but dear old Ireland is looking at an L-shape... if we are lucky. If McCarthy’s crazy proposals are implemented, it’s an “L” on its side. A left/green coalition is needed to fight the Bord Slash attacks and take positive measures to start the recovery, eg, investing in innovative ideas like Spirit of Ireland’s combined wind/pumped storage hydro project.

I am calling on the Labour party to refuse to campaign for Yes in the Lisbon rerun unless the worst cutbacks are ditched.

Cllr Dessie Ellis

Dunsink Road

Finglas

Dublin 11