Imagination, not bullyboy tactics, needed

Was there anything honest, decent or uplifting in Budget 2013?

It was like casting 95% of the adult Irish population into a huge mangling machine, starting it up and squeezing the last drop of their spare energy juices into the avaricious Government and troika coffers.

A clue as to the Government’s future strategy for economic expansion and job creation would be some encouragement in planning where the money might be found for the stringent budget demand; it would also restore confidence. But there was none.

By imposing an exorbitant property tax across the board at such an inopportune time when over 400,000 are unemployed and around 65,700 homeowners are in negative equity, with mortgage accounts six months or more in arrears, is a crime against society.

Had the Government the guts to impose this tax in the midst of the mythical Celtic Tiger boom it would have buffered the number and size of houses being built, caused common sense to prevail and, possibly, averted the current crises.

The budget cutting child and carer allowances, taxing maternity benefit and penalising the sick and the elderly — while massive Government salaries and pensions still remain untouched — was just a typical example of man’s inhumanity to man.

What is desperately needed is new imagination with wise long-term planning. ‘Bullyboy tactics’ will not work.

James Gleeson

Thurles

Co Tipperary