Health overrun tallies with social welfare cut

In the run-up to the Budget, with the internal deals done between the politicians, one piece of irony remains.

Today, the Fine Gael Health Minister is looking at a cost overrun of €400m in his estimates, and the Labour Social Welfare Minister is under pressure to cut her costs by €440m.

Coincidence? The health overrun is because 70% of that budget goes on high medical salaries, whereas 100% of the social welfare budget prevents hundreds of thousands of people from falling further into the poverty trap.

The betting man would back Reilly and the wealthy medics to get their way, and the riffraff can simply get on with it, any way they like.

After all, what other decision could our wealthy lords and masters make? The junior doctors are on strike and we can’t be having any more of that.

John Mallon

Mayfield

Cork