Minister accused of new form of social exclusion

The Minister for Finance has been accused of creating a new form of social exclusion by discriminating against some social welfare recipients.

Ms Teresa Mullen, founder of the Kilkenny-based Prevent Poverty Action Group, said that by giving smaller increases to some categories of social welfare recipient than others, Mr McCreevy was creating exclusion within the system.

"If you're a poor person you're a poor person and I cannot see why you should be told `we're going to look after the people in one corner but not in another."'

Ms Mullen, an independent member of Kilkenny County Council, said a widow under 65 with four dependent children would see her income rise from £145 a week to £149 - or 80p for each member of the household. "That tells you all you need to know about the Budget." Many people getting a £4-a-week social welfare increase would lose up to a third of that in increased local authority housing rent, she pointed out. Such rents are income-related and automatically rise when social welfare payments increase.

She criticised the failure to increase the fuel allowance, which has remained at an average of £5 a week, depending on where the recipient lives, for more than 10 years.

"I am not exaggerating when I say I get calls from people on a Wednesday night who are worried about heating their homes until Friday, and very often worried about not having something to eat."

Pensioners and widows faced increasing costs all the time, she said - such as for refuse collection, which now costs £132 a year in Co Kilkenny. "People wonder where the poverty is coming from but I don't because you can see if you look closely enough.

"A thing that really angers me in relation to widows is it has never even occurred to them to give the widows or widowers the travel allowance. It wouldn't cost all that much to put in place".

Ms Mullen also found it "astonishing and very worrying" that the Minister appeared to be "pushing women out to work" by discriminating against single-income households.

"I have no problem with women going to work but I do have a problem with it becoming an accepted route out of poverty. People should not be forced to leave their children to go out to work." A Kilkenny Radio programme on the Budget also aired stinging criticisms from a number of contributors.

Ms Margaret Leahy, a community activist in the Newpark Close area and a widow, said the £4 increase she had received was "like a slap in the face."

Ms Mairead McEvoy, who works in the public service, said the Budget had not delivered for the lower paid. "Young people are paying so much on rent now - you go to Dublin, you get a job but you've nothing for it . . . The poor are left out again and it's not good enough."

However the president of Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce, Mr David Fitzgerald, said the reduction in capital gains tax on all properties to 20 per cent could have a significant effect on the city.

There was a shortage of industrial land for indigenous local businesses "and it may be the key that will unlock some parcels of land".