Widows’ benefits – U-turns becoming a nasty habit
No sooner was Taoiseach Bertie Ahern forced to make a humiliating ground-shift in the Gilmartin affair at the Mahon tribunal, than Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Coughlan had to perform a begrudging reversal of her outrageous attempt to take social welfare benefits from widows and widowers.
It was yet another illustration of an administration out of touch with the reality of daily life in Ireland.
While Ministers luxuriate in State Mercs and perks, disabled citizens are denied basic rights and facilities.
While politicians enjoy big salaries, long holidays, generous pensions and a raft of other considerations, the strain on the country’s hospitals intensifies and schools fall into disrepair.
While the Government reneges on its election promise to recruit 2,000 extra gardaí, no-go areas are spreading in cities and towns where street violence and serious crime continue to rise.
Despite Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s denial that he is running an increasingly right wing government, there is no denying Thatcherite ideologies inform its social and fiscal policies.
The spectacle of widows and widowers marching on parliament is more in line with a South American dictatorship than a democratic republic basking in the Presidency of the European Union.
Yet, it took street protests by angry members of the National Association of Widows in Ireland to get Ms Coughlan to drop her stone-hearted policy, the latest in a litany of 16 cutbacks from the same minister.
While credit is due to the Labour party for taking up this issue, the major plaudit goes to RTÉ’s Joe Duffy for providing a live forum where the public voiced its fury over this shameful move.
Ostensibly, it required a departmental review to bring home the fact that “there may be potential hardship in some cases”, as the minister belatedly admitted in the face of growing criticism.
The question that arises is why Ms Coughlan and her officials did not anticipate the hardship from the outset.
That widows and widowers were seen as a soft political target is the only realistic explanation. Clearly, neither this minister nor her advisers foresaw the public backlash in support of the beleaguered victims of grossly unfair and illegal cuts.
Only when political reality sank in was Ms Coughlan moved to “fully retrospectively restore”, from January 19, the half-rate disability, maternity and unemployment benefits, which widows, widowers and lone parents are entitled to in addition to their widows’ pension.
Belatedly, the Government realised that with local elections looming in June, widows were not going to give up their fight against this totally unwarranted and utterly cynical policy from a politician who is gaining an unenviable reputation as Minister for Cutbacks.
As the spokeswoman for the Widows’ Association put it: “this issue obviously caught the imagination of the general public and we had terrific support from so many people. I think the minister realised how outraged everybody was with this savage cut.”
Like the Taoiseach, who has been brought reluctantly to accept his 1998 meeting with Tom Gilmartin, Ms Coughlan has also seen the writing on the wall.
By trying to victimise widows, for the sake of less than €6 million, the Government has succeeded in further undermining its own credibility.
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