Should cuts in social welfare be introduced in the forthcoming Budget?

63% YES 37% NO

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Your Reaction

• yes, i'd cut it out altogether, there is no such thing as dole here in america and you just have to work and save for rainy days. This country is on its way back. There is nothing but road construction and Bridge and ramp repairing going on here. I'm working with medical students and ex army lads and all are delighted to be working.
  pete, Chicago  United States
• Yes, 210 euro a week is too high. Free medical card, rent allowance and help with bills should be looked at too. My take home is 345 a week.
  martin kavanagh  Ireland
• Cuts in social welfare are necessary but not necessarily for everyone. Those who have worked and paid taxes should not have their social welfare touched. However, those who have been long term unemployed, or who abuse their welfare payments by behaving in antisocial fashion should have their welfare cut drastically. It seems that a lot of social welfare money is being used by a certain segment of society to cause havoc for their fellow citizens. It seems crazy that rent allowances of up to €1,200 is paid to some people who have never worked or contributed to society on top of dole money. This is grossly unfair...tax payers with mortgages are subsidising rent while being barely able to afford to pay their own mortgages. It is crazy. There should be no social welfare for long term unemployed...they should contribute to society in order to be paid this money. However, for those who lost their jobs and need social welfare until they find employment there should be no cuts.
  chris  Ireland
• cuts in social welfare,yes,there are a lot of people milking the cow,and they will do so till she is dry. Here in Spain a familey with 4 children 450euros per month,and thats it,tough but these are tough times
  gerard ireland  Spain
• Who is being given too much at present? Who on social welfare can take a hit without having to give up one or more basic requirements for sustainable living? When you show me these people, I'll support your proposals to reduce what they're getting to what they need as a minimum.
  There's a very nasty side of the Irish showing. Barely a year ago, so many people couldn't be vulgar or flash enough. Now people can't be harsh enough, every day seeking out people in society on whom to vent their frustration. In almost every case these people have never done them any harm. Nonetheless, the mob has been activated and it drools and slobbers in its self-induced outrage towards whoever the spotlight shines on today.
  And I'll point it out yet again. The people who did the damage have got themselves out of the spotlight. They have not and will not be held accountable. Their assets will not be seized, they will not do jail time, they will not be put on welfare, and they will not be indentured to the end of their days to repay what the nation must pay now to bail out their misdeeds and greed. They have used their control of the media and of the political circus to turn us on each other. Every day, this BB and various other media obliges.
  They have got away with it, and the same people will be back in a few short years, fortunes intact, to harvest us once more.
  Brendan  Mali
• That we are even talking about cutting welfare is an indication of the depth to which we as a community have sunk into the PD vulgarity of "everyman for himself".. This govenrment has no mandate to plunge a swathe of the population from poverty into penury and their blind insistance on forcing the poorest and most vulnerable to suffrer, while their friends who have all the money are allowed to continue as before, is bordering on the criminal.A huge rise in petty crime and even social unrest will be the outcome. This government must go to the people before they unleash mayhem
  Jim O'Sullivan  Ireland
• if its cuts straight across the board.. i would say definately not..

  the argument that the social bill is to high does not justify cuts across the board..

  what is needed and has been badly needed for years is to cut out fraud which is costing a fortune and is not acceptable.

  genuine people who are fully dependant on social welfare should not be cut..
  john hegarty  Ireland

• It's necessary. The Blueshirts and the Communists will shout about it - like they did in Weimar Germany - but there is no alternative. We cannot keep borrowing half a billion a week to hand out to layabouts and social parasites.

  The state should never have gotten into the welfare business in the first place but this current crisis is a great opportunity to unwind its involvement. And should be siezed with both hands. And it should abolish PRSI now to stimulate the economy. It has to be clear to all now that PRSI is a total scam and has nothing to do with insurance. You get your 204Euro whether or not you've paid your stamps. And charging people 7% of their wages, without limit, to give them 204Euro a week is clearly a product that would fail in a competitive market. Let people take out fine private insurance. If they want to. And fine privat health insurance. Again if they want to.

  Someone wondered yesterday why the Nordics came out on top of some makey up prosperity chart or other. Because the figures are fiddled and most of the weightings making up the index have nothing to do with prosperity at all. We are ranked at 25 on the personal freedom one for example. Who believes that the nordics are freer other than that they can have abortions. the permission to murder your fellow citizens does not make for a freer country. Mind you Mary Harney can take a bow. We come out second in the world on health. And as they used to say your health is your wealth.
  owen  United States Minor Outlying Islands

• I'd feel kinda sorry for the welfare recipients all the same. No more than civil servants, they've been misled by governments of all hues into thinking that they can go through live without ever doing a day's work. And now reality is going to bite them. Hard. I don't know how they'll cope.
  owen  United States Minor Outlying Islands
• The budget has to be balanced (that means we should only spend what we can raise, for those public servants among you).
  So the real question is: should chlidren, oaps and the unemployed from the private sector suffer cuts in their benefits of last resort in order to preserve at all costs the inflated pay, pensions, 'privilege' days, etc built up by the public sector during the boom?
  The answer is of course NO. Public sector pay, conditions, numbers and especially pensions first. Everything else second.
  Dave Dublin  Ireland