There we have it. Another budget when we try to decipher what good it’s actually going to do.
Deck-chair rearranging and talk of money being no object is the way to go apparently.
What is happening here is far beyond the safety-net of social protection and will only lead to economic collapse for everyone.
Work has to be created and is not simply an abstract concept. It is also vital to sustainability and the overall mental health of a nation.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe did manage to slip in the figure of a probable loss of 320,000 jobs in 2020 just to add a little realism to the whole thing in his speech, so perhaps this is seen as balance.
Covid-19 has become a too convenient excuse for flip-flopping all over the place.
Robert Sullivan
Bantry
Co Cork
Economic ideology is a road to disaster
An Taoiseach Micheál Martin told Tuesday night’s TV audience that the budget was what all advisers wanted. And therein lies a major problem.
It appears all advisers must mirror what ministers and government think and want. Otherwise they will not be kept.
We had a very public example of this phenomenon where an adviser apparently got through the net and dared go against government advice.
Fortunately, the advisor had sufficient strength of character not to resign, as appeared to be the objective of the very public attack.
Having such character in health advisory roles bodes well for the country.
Sadly in economic realms, it appears nobody is brave enough to challenge an elitist ‘groupthink’ which, unfortunately, appears committed to thinking borrowing is probably the only short-term course open to government. That the Government thinks it is a badge of honour to be able to borrow so much is ominous. It is based on false expectations that the economy can be restored by throwing money at it.
Persistence with growth economics and expectation that technology will not obliterate medium to small business while decimating employment under present economic ideology is a roadmap to disaster.
Padraic Neary
Tubbercurry
Co Sligo
Low paid motorists hit by carbon taxes
People who can’t afford expensive environmentally-friendly cars have been skinned alive in this budget.
Many car owners are in low paid jobs, or they hardly drive due to Covid-19.
All vehicles have emissions of some sort, and it’s already too late to heal the damage to the environment.
We’d have to stop using vehicles and factories for the next century in order to partially heal this damage.
The Greens have wasted no time in confirming fears that they would bleed us dry with tax.
Dr Florence Craven
Bracknagh
Co Offaly
Budget was a tale of two Irelands
The budget is the tale of the two Irelands writ large. The travails of one sector, business, met with lavish and unabashed largesse, while the struggles of the homeless and those with inadequate access to healthcare and other social goods, met with wretched sprinkling of crumbs.
Jim O’Sullivan
Rathedmond
Sligo
No medical cards for all over-70s
It’s 11pm and after a day of endless coverage of ‘the unprecedented budget’ I get to read the Fergus Finlay’s column ‘Time to consider protecting the elderly the way they protected you’ (Irish Examiner, October 13).
We, the elderly, a description I dislike, deserve more consideration from younger people during this unprecedented pandemic. But why should they care when our government with their unprecedented budget missed a golden opportunity to show they care by honouring a long awaited promise of medical cards for all over 70s.
Eugene Currivan
Tower
Cork
Unemployment is a hard grind for all
The Pandemic Unemployment Payment was designed by the previous Fine Gael government. It was a crucial innovation and it has preserved the social fabric of the country.
The system has created some anomalies but that is no reason to resuscitate Victorian-era ideas of the ‘deserving’ and ‘less-deserving’ poor. Unemployment, temporary or permanent, is the same hard grind for every family in the State. The virus doesn’t care how big your house is or how old your car is. Neither should the State when it comes to basic essential social protection payments.
Michael Deasy
Carrigart
Co Donegal
Perspective on the pandemic needed
Present fears are less than horrible imaginings. So says Macbeth as he strives to cope with the crisis facing him. It might equally apply to ourselves striving to cope with Covid-19.
We are put to the pin of our collar complying with these tiresome restrictions which seem to flatten the curve of our own life trajectory, whatever about curbing Covid-19. Yet everything is relative and must be understood in the correct context.
We are not enduring aerial bombings which drive us down to the shelter night after night emerging in trepidation, dreading to see our homes and indeed whole streets in ruins. We are safe in our homes. And although our young students have had to suffer uncertainty, inconvenience and major disruption, at least we are not sending our young men marching out to the Somme never again to be seen again perhaps.
When we consider what earlier generations had to endure — the ordeal of war, deprivation, bereavement and loss of all kinds, our lot seems more bearable.
Or again, imagine what the consequences of a cyber attack would be like — crippling our computers and electronic structures. Society would hardly be able to function.
War and famine do not stake the land and while we struggle with Covid-19 it is not of the magnitude of the Spanish flu, thanks to advances in our medical research. Let us keep a sense of perspective.
Yes, we are weary of the restrictions imposed on us, which some consider an affront to their civil liberties, but the common good compensates individual sacrifice.
We need not fear the pandemic; rather let us guard against the panic it generates.
If I may quote once more from Macbeth, listen to Lady Macbeth:
“But screw your courage to the sticking place and we’ll not fail”.
John Coughlan
Innishannon Road
Cork
Relegation of Cork City might be good
As a Waterfordman living in Cork — who has been a long time supporter of Cork City FC — I am very saddened by the present demise of one of Ireland’s foremost soccer clubs. Cork City FC’s drop into the LoI First Division now seems all but imminent — following City’s latest league loss to Dundalk — with just three tough games left to play in this best forgotten season.
I have been a season ticket holder for the past four years, and never missed a match at Turners Cross since 2016. I’ve been to many away games (and ironically, to the RSC in Waterford twice in recent years), including being at three cup finals, with my wife, my son, his wife (all dedicated City supporters at heart) and two of my grandsons.
The zenith of this great Cork club was in winning the league and cup double in 2017, an achievement for which we are grateful to the then manager John Caulfield — a manager second to none, in my opinion.
However, as I have been saying since the start of this ‘crazy’ season, I have come to believe that the standard of football played by the team at Cork City FC is far too low, for competing with the present cohort of teams in the Premier Division, as well as the disorganised team players not having any good luck this season. Sadly, City have not found a proper replacement for Seanie Maguire, when many supporters reckon the slide in team fortunes began, back in June 2017.
My belief is that relegation of Cork City FC might be a good thing to happen. A (shortish) term in the First Division could possibly better suit the first team at City at this present juncture.
Playing against some lesser quality teams (with all due respect to the likes of Cobh Ramblers, Wexford, etc) might give a newly constituted Cork City team a chance to regroup, thus allowing home born and bred Cork City players — that were nurtured via the club’s academy — the prospect to mature enough, in order to be better able to compete at the highest level of Irish football, when Cork City FC will eventually earn promotion to the Premier Division.
Cork City FC senior soccer has been in the doldrums before, and when the occasion arose they showed the mettle to recover to be the best team in the land. City can well do so again, I believe.
Tom Baldwin
Midleton
Co Cork
