This inequitable budget is the last straw

This horrible budget promotes inequality — giving to the banks and the wealthy, while taking from the vulnerable and needy.

The “crucifixion” of the elderly and the scrapping of the €850 bereavement grant were the last straw. A pensioner with a few euro in savings for a nursing home will now pay 41% dirt tax, with the possibility of also losing their medical card. An old person with family abroad will have their €9.50-a-month telephone allowance snatched from them. Elderly people have more health problems and have costly prescription charges. Now, that has doubled to €2.50 per item. Their property tax is also being doubled, next year. With 10 cents on beer, cider and spirits, and 50 cents on a bottle of wine, we can’t even drown our sorrows. The Government will soon learn they have cast the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’.

James Gleeson