Dublin archbishops criticise tax policy

The Archbishops of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell and Dr Walton Empey, both criticised Government taxation policy in their Christmas Day sermons.

Speaking in the Pro-Cathedral, Dr Connell said: "Taxation policy favours the market, not the home."

In a more lengthy critique during his Christ Church sermon, Dr Empey said: "In Christian terms the glory of a nation lies not in its wealth or its power but in how it uses that wealth and how it cares for its minorities. How did our recent Budget, for example, reflect our glory as a nation? The short answer is that it did not".

In its reaction to the Budget the Conference of Religious of Ireland had pointed out "that a person in long-term unemployment will be better off by £8 per week while a person on £40,000 [annually] would be £64 [per week] better off. It could hardly be thought that this was a brave attempt to bring the poor out of the poverty trap. It was not a reflection of the nation's glory."

Dr Connell said: "Permissiveness is eroding social respect for marriage and preparing a new generation ill adapted to life in society. A recent television programme exposed drunkenness, not as an unwanted misfortune, but as a deliberate cult.

"How much of the harm, from domestic violence to distressful pregnancy, is attributable to drink?" he asked.

He also warned: "The worship of riches takes its toll in apathy towards the widening gap between rich and poor, in theft from employers and sharp business practice, in devious forms of corruption, in neglect of family loyalties."

Dr Empey said: "There are far too many who resent the presence of immigrants and often express themselves in a brutal and abusive manner. For my own part I rejoice in this multicultural atmosphere."

Preaching on Christmas Day, Dean Robert MacCarthy of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin asked: "What hope is there for the 13,000 asylum-seekers already in the State who will have to wait years due to our creaking bureaucracy? What hope is there for the homeless when the Government actually plans to take 10 years to solve the problem?"

He also criticised the Budget, saying: "Although there are huge numbers of people still animated by Christian concern for their less fortunate fellows, they need mobilising. In view of the recent Budget provisions to enable the rich get richer, they certainly need mobilising at the next general election."