The Budget was today described as unjust and a failure for all the people of Ireland.
Fr Sean Healy of Social Justice Ireland claimed it was anti-family, anti-poor and anti-children.
“A society is measured on how it treats its vulnerable people. Using that yardstick this Budget has failed all of Ireland’s people,” Fr Healy said.
Social Justice Ireland said Budget 2010 lacks vision, fails to provide the leadership and raises serious questions concerns over the Government’s competence.
Fr Healy said the Government were out of touch. “People who are earning €4,000 a week after they have taken their pay cut … are in no position to understand the impact of a reduction in income on somebody receiving €204 e a week on welfare,” he said.
Official figures show the cost of living has fallen by about 6 per cent in the last year. But Fr Healy said the poorest have already been hit by a 2 per cent cut with the axing of the Christmas bonus while education costs have continued to rise.
One third of requests for help from St Vincent de Paul are to pay food and household bills, he said. “It was not the poor, it was not the vulnerable who caused the crisis that Ireland is facing but now it is the poor, it is the vulnerable who are actually paying the cost,” Fr Healy said.
Social Justice Ireland criticised the way savings were found and the tax system. “Government’s rhetoric about protecting the vulnerable and promoting the economy is not matched by its decisions in Budget 2010,” Fr Healy said.
“All in all a depressing, unfair and unjust Budget,” he said. “Far better options were available that would have protected the vulnerable and promoted the economy. Government chose instead to favour those who are better off over the most vulnerable.”
Fr Healy said the Government had failed to significantly increase the tax-take, leaving Ireland with one of the lowest total tax takes in the EU and this was the main reason the Exchequer had no money to protect social services or promote the economy.
He welcomed the carbon tax but said it failed to protect vulnerable people on low incomes or living in rural areas without access to public transport.
PA