Fairness is sacrosanct, child benefit is not

THOSE were the days. It was October 2008, and nobody knew it was so bad. The lies peddled by bankers had yet to be exposed. The euro was still a currency on which you could have put your negative-equity house. The bailout of the state was but a glint in the eye of some evil incarnation of the markets.

Those were the days when the pensioners showed the rest of society how to protest. Those heady days were revisited last Monday on the RTÉ programme, Crisis: Cowen in Government. The decision by the government in the budget of October 2008 to discontinue automatic medical cards for over-70s unleashed hell on the streets around Leinster House.

It made for great visuals. The cameras focused particularly on the infirm, who needed help to march. Thousands of elderly men and women travelled to the capital on their free travel pass, and let fly. They were not going to be sacrificed on the altar of austerity.

There was the information meeting in a former church near the seat of parliament, during which junior minister John Maloney was heckled from the stage. The only information the protestors wanted was confirmation that the measure would be reversed.

A message was sent loud and clear across to government buildings — hands off the most vulnerable.

Expect much of it was hokum. For the programme, former Fianna Fáil ministers and TDs were interviewed about the debacle.

They referenced the political fall-out from the decision. Some said they saw it coming; others bemoaned the manner in which it had been communicated, which was disastrous.

In one of his safari interviews over the last few years, Bertie Ahern said that he never would have made that decision, and on that, if nothing else, it’s easy to believe him. Politically, it was a very poor move.

The only contributor to Monday’s programme to put it in a different context was former Green Party minister Eamon Ryan. He said that, from a social justice point of view, changing the automatic entitlement was appropriate.

Of that, there can be no doubt. Many, if not most, of those protesting would have been entitled to continue in receipt of medical cards. The scheme was a major boon for doctors, who were paid three times more per patient than they received for treating other medical-card holders. It was ill thought-out and was rushed through in order to win the grey vote in time for the 2002 election.

When, six years later, the country was under the cosh, it was only socially just that it be reversed. A considerable number of retired personnel, from both public and private sector, are on a good pension, and can manage comfortably without being topped up by the state. That carry-on was all very good for the “vote-buying” Bertie era, but now resources have to be deployed in a fairer manner.

Three years ago, a vast tract of the population didn’t possess the imagination to acknowledge that the over-70 free medical-card scheme was unsustainable. Understandably, the hangover from the years of illusory plenty was still exercising many minds.

There can be no such excuse this time around. The forthcoming budget is going to impact hugely on those who can least afford it. If any proper effort is to be made to protect the most vulnerable, a new approach is required from both the Government and opposition. The former will have to promote real fairness at the expense of political considerations, and it should be incumbent on the opposition to acknowledge when the most vulnerable are being protected.

The Government has announced that €700m will be taken from the €21bn budget of the Department of Social Protection. That’s a serious blow to the people who need protection, and how it is managed will tell much about the direction of the Government.

One example of where fairness and political expediency collide with great force is child benefit. Politicians are scared stiff of touching it, fearing the political hay that can be made by opponents from any cuts. “What about the children?”

Yet there are large tracts of middle-class parents who can manage without the payment. Most people are strapped at the moment, but in the lower reaches of society, every penny can impact on attaining a basic standard of living.

Further up the socio-economic ladder, bad and all as things are, the basics are still well within reach.

The total cost of child benefit is just over €2bn, rendering cuts nearly inevitable. So far, any cuts have been right across the board, hitting millionaire parents to the same extent as those living on the edge of want. Politically, a cut across the board is the easiest option, but it also lacks any fairness.

In that vein, it was heartening to see the chief executive of Barnardos, Fergus Finlay, demonstrate a realism that continues to be absent in some quarters.

Finlay told the Oireachtas committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education that Barnardos would be willing to support some cuts in child benefit if it resulted in a more targeted system.

While he wanted “no cuts in child benefit”, if it was done it needed to be “much more sophisticated” than crude cuts in previous budgets, which did not compensate for low income.

Finlay’s comments are a departure from the stock position of nearly all who work with the marginalised — they claim that any cuts to child benefit will increase child poverty.

Not everybody is willing to recognise the jam we’re in. One of the committee’s members, Joan Collins, of People Before Profit, said there needed to be “no more cuts to child benefit” as people were “already cut to the bone”.

Strange days when a member of People Before Profit is effectively defending the payment of a subsidy to everybody, including the not inconsiderable number of people who remain relatively well-off. Maybe her outfit should be called Profit Before People.

Child benefit is one area where “tough decisions” can be taken that, for once, will not be tough on the most vulnerable, but tough on the politicians.

Another is the subvention of €100m for fee-paying schools. There may be a case for continuing the subvention, but only if it is hugely reduced. Tough and all as this may be on the parents concerned, it’s not half as tough as cutting services for those most in need at early and pre-school level. There have already been cuts in book grants, special needs assistants, language support and resource teachers.

All of these services were largely taken from a section of society that can least afford them. If we are to move any way towards the new republic that our new president appears to be championing, a start could be made at the budget.

Political considerations could be parked in order to ensure that fairness is the guiding principle in the budget. Here is the chance to show that things can be done differently with a little effort.