Friday, June 4, 2010

Fianna Fáil & the Green's must stop cruel cuts and tackle jobs crisis instead

The Star kindly carried an article of mine this week on the governments proposals to cut further lone parents and social welfare payments. Text of it is below. Have a read and let me know what you think.....

This Government has some cheek. They have wrecked the economy and brought the state to its knees. Of course they won’t take any responsibility for this. Having already cut welfare payments, including the Christmas bonus, they are back again pointing the finger of blame at people on social welfare.

Over the last twelve months the dole queues have swelled. People who have lost jobs have had their incomes and lives shattered. Offers of work are few and far between.

The Minister for ‘Social Protection’ is now waving the big stick at people who are out of work. ‘Get out to work or we’ll cut your benefits’ is the message from Eamon O Cuiv TD and his well paid government cronies. I wonder how Eamon O Cuiv TD, or the rest of them, would get by on €200 a week?

They want us to believe that the thousands who have lost their jobs don’t really want to work or to take up training. This is the same crowd who have failed to come up with any plan to keep people at work or to generate new jobs or to provide training and apprenticeships.

You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Everyone needs decent work, to pay their way and provide for their families. No one should be left in poverty traps, relying on welfare for their income. That is not acceptable. The latest cuts in welfare aren’t really aimed at getting people back to work.

Having a go at the unemployed and lone parents is the Governments way of distracting attention from their own failures – typical sleveen politics.

We need a job creation plan – proposals from Sinn Fein and others can point a way forward. We need training and childcare supports to get people back to work. We need these things now. The Government should lay off people struggling on welfare and use their energies to put right the mess they are responsible for.