The Government will be happy it had to do a U-turn on just one of its welfare cuts, writes Mark Hennessy
In the eyes of the Opposition, the Government displayed incredible heartlessness towards widows in the last Budget when it cut their rights to qualify for unemployment payments.
Given that the planned €5 million savings are a drop in the ocean in the Exchequer's annual €11 billion spend, the reality might be a little more prosaic - a blunder.
Before the Budget, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, conceded a package of cuts in talks with the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.
Supplementary rent payments were cut, while coeliacs and others requiring special diets found that their food costs were set to be rise sharply.
Crèche payments for low-income women, desperately needed if they are to have any chance of staying in the workforce, also faced the knife.
In reality, the package was laced with political minefields, all set to explode with a concerted public campaign, fuelled by press coverage.
The only miracle from the Government's point of view is that it has been forced to back down on only one of the Coughlan measures, the one affecting widows.
Under the changes, long-standing rules allowing working widows, widowers and lone parents to qualify for half-rate unemployment, disability or injury benefit if they lost their jobs were to end.
The half-rate payments were an "anomaly", said the Minister, because it was not right these categories should qualify for two social welfare payments when nobody else does.
On the night of the Budget, the widows' cut was pretty much ignored. Instead, attention focused on the decision to reduce rent supplement payments.
"If anybody thought about the politics of this beforehand, it seems that they only thought about rent supplement, not anything else," said one senior Fianna Fáil figure yesterday.
Though there are 120,000 widows, widowers and lone parents, the majority of them would not be affected by the change for the simple reason that they no longer work.
An average of 2,000 people would have lost out every week over the course of the year, each losing €67 a week.
Of those, widows/widowers would represent about 35 per cent of half-rate disability benefit recipients and about 20 per cent of half-rate unemployment benefit recipients.
"Deserted wives would represent about 17 per cent of half-rate disability benefit recipients and 25 per cent of half-rate unemployment benefit recipients and lone parents would represent about 48 per cent of half-rate disability benefit recipients and about 55 per cent of half-rate unemployment benefit recipients," a Department of Social and Family Affairs spokesman told The Irish Times.
Seeking to rekindle the anger surrounding Charlie McCreevy's "dirty dozen" cuts in the early 1990s, the Labour Party mobilised.
Dubbing it one of Minister Coughlan's "16 savage cuts", Labour circulated pamphlets as it sought to stir public attention.
By the middle of March, it had decided to use its share of Dáil time to embarrass the Minister, who, though popular, is inexperienced.
Significantly, the National Widows Association, by now marshalling its forces, met the same week in Wynns Hotel in Dublin city centre.
Labour Dublin North TD, Mr Seán Ryan, turned up at the public meeting on March 23rd to offer a briefing and to invite the organisation to attend the debate on Labour's Private Members' Motion the following night.
Sixty pensioners filled the Dáil's public gallery on the first night. Eighty turned up for the second night of debate.
The message was not lost on the Government. Ms Coughlan met the association and promised a review. "It was introduced with effect from January 19th and applies to new claimants," the Minister told the Dáil.
However, any hopes that she may have had of a dignified withdrawal disappeared when widows took to the airwaves on RTÉ's Liveline programme.
Displaying a sure ability to hit a nerve, the show's presenter, Joe Duffy, aired one hard-luck story after another.
Each had merit, particularly when one considers that any worker laid off, injured, or sick would have paid into the social insurance fund and, therefore, could legitimately expect to draw back from it in hard times.
Fianna Fáil TDs acknowledged that they were feeling pressure in the constituencies. "Everywhere I went, I kept getting it in the neck," one said.
Though the widows have won their battle, there appears little sign that other affected groups will be able to mount a similar campaign.
In the Byzantine world of social welfare regulations, as in so many other areas of life, all are not equal.