Madam, – Now that those who wrote letters attacking public servants in the run-up to the Budget have drawn blood, who is next? Which section of society will be the next scapegoats for the incompetence of this Government? Is my turn over, or should I expect to hear them calling this time next year?
I returned to college as a mature student to train as a primary school teacher at a great cost financially and otherwise. Since starting teaching three years ago, at the bottom of the pay scale, I have had my wage cut by 15 per cent. My wife is pregnant with our second child and the future does not look bright. We did not live to excess during the boom, we don’t have a second car, a holiday home or any other luxuries that were commonplace during our economic prosperity. Our small two-bedroom house is now in negative equity and with a large mortgage this latest cut will make paying it a strain, even before taking into account the cuts to children’s allowance and inevitable interest rate rises.
It’s hard to believe Brian Lenihan’s sincerity when he said the worst is over. I know people in the private sector who have lost their jobs; I know many more who haven’t and the vast majority of them have had no changes in their income since the 1 per cent income levy. I’m told I have a secure job, but in a situation when I’m almost better off on the dole, what’s the use of security?
It’s hard enough to have been pushed to the brink, without being told I deserve everything I get because I chose to work in the public service. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – With the scandalous act of abolishing most of the dental/optical treatment benefit scheme (already paid for by workers through their PRSI), let’s hope that, come election-time, it will be a case of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – While the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) appreciates the need to make savings in Government expenditure and it is pleased that pensions have been protected, IASW cannot understand why the most vulnerable in society, particularly those with serious physical and mental health difficulties, have not also been protected. IASW is most concerned that vulnerable people who will now have to pay towards prescriptions may stop taking necessary treatment because of the new cost. IASW plans to campaign for these cuts to be reversed as soon as possible. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – What a draconian Budget. We still resemble pre-revolution times in France. I’m waiting for the Government to say of the poor: let them drink wine! – Yours, etc.
Madam, – I know there are bigger issues involved in the Budget than my little gripe, but what has taken place leaves me feeling like a buffoon.
In 2007, eager to play my part in a greener world, I changed to a diesel car – better for the environment, I was led to believe.
The next year, it was decided the road tax regime would acknowledge same. Except, in the typically begrudgingly small-minded way that this benighted Republic operates, the policy would be introduced without acknowledging those who had got the message earlier than they had. In other words, road tax for my diesel car would remain at the previous punitively high rate for ever more.
A double whammy. I’ll have to pay over €1,000 a year in road tax for as long as I keep the car, and I’ll have a real difficulty when I go to trade it in, for who would want a 2007 diesel with that whopping annual road tax liability, when paying slightly more upfront for a 2008 model would save them plenty at every renewal? Now, the Budget tells me I should have stuck with petrol. Its so-called carbon tax, another sleight of hand (which is the one thing the Irish civil service has perfected over the years of running this jurisdiction), has added 4 cent per litre to petrol, but 5 cent per litre to diesel, the environmentally preferred option. Has anyone got the key to this asylum, so that I might get out? Yours, etc,