Family earning 60K lose 4,600e as a consequence of this budget

Speaking on the Order of Business in Seanad Eireann, Galway West Senator Fidelma Healy Eames said that no job stimulus package has been provided. A paltry 1,400 places are to be provided on enterprise allowance schemes. What effect will this have on an economy that is losing 1,000 jobs per day?

The budget does not offer a solution to difficulties in the third level sector, which is critical to the development of an innovation and knowledge economy. Instead, a reduction of €24 million euro is proposed. There is a further reduction of €40 million in the money allocated to the schools’ building programme.

As well as not planning for the future, this budget is a case of the Government relying on the “same old, same old” soft option solutions of obliging middle income workers and families to pay for the State’s debts. Now an average family with earnings amounting to €60,000 per annum will lose €4,600 as a consequence of the budget. That is a decline of 8% in family income as a result of this budget alone.

I am concerned. At a human level, the question I want answered from this government is how can taxpayers be expected to pay their own personal debts if they are also obliged to pay for the State’s debts as well.  To pay for Fianna Fail’s mistakes.

This budget is really lower-level thinking. The opportunity to completely change how we do our business in running this country has not been grasped.

Fine Gael has proposed a NewERA policy for 100k jobs and a radically new policy for funding the Third level sector. Neither have been adopted in any shape or form by this government. So much for looking for our ideas!

The difficulty with this budget is that it does not provide solutions to the major problems that are affecting our country.