Sir, – It is petty and mean-spirited to cut the aid given to low-income families to assist with First Communion (Dáil report, February 3rd).
The comments made by Eamon Gilmore and Joan Burton regarding “helicopters” and “lavish expenditure” are, frankly, contemptible. Perhaps they consider profligate spending to be exclusively the entitlement of bankers and politicians?
€300 is the average of the sums given to families which caused such alarm to Ms Burton. Ironically, she and her fellow politicians can claim €300 a week in unvouched expenses, for 52 weeks of the year. Perhaps the Minister for Social Protection could ask her peers in Leinster House to cut down on that lavish expenditure. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Instead of reducing “Holy Communion and Confirmation” social welfare payments to €110 per instance (Home News, February 3rd), a move which would still cost the taxpayer about €1.5 million per year, surely a more justifiable approach would be to abolish them entirely.
What sort of “republic” doles out payments to sectional religious interest groups in this way and then foists the expense on all of the country’s taxpayers?
Why should Irish atheists and agnostics be forced to subsidise the “celebrations” of belief systems they disagree with or want no part in?
Families make free choices to engage in such events and as such must be responsible for those choices, instead of relying on handouts from their fellow citizens of other faiths and none. – Yours, etc,