Government must now make provision to reverse social welfare cuts

 
Government must now make provision to reverse the social welfare cuts introduced in Budget 2010 according to Social Justice Ireland. Given the Government’s huge investment in the rescue of delinquent banks announced today (March 30, 2010) and the welcome agreement with the Trade Unions to prioritise low-paid workers in the negotiations concluded over-night, it is now imperative that Government commit to roll back the savage cuts imposed on Ireland’s poorest people in Budget 2010.

Government used half truths and misrepresentations to justify the unfair and unjust choices it made in Budget 2010. Many of the reasons provided by Government Ministers, backbenchers and commentators to justify the damaging choices made were not based on fact. Fairness demands that a pathway towards restoring these cuts should now be set out and agreed by Government.
One example of a misrepresentation that was constantly repeated was that inflation had fallen by more than 6% in 2009 and therefore it was quite fair to cut social welfare rates for Ireland’s most vulnerable people by more than 4%. In fact, according to the Central Statistics Office inflation fell by 4.5% in 2009. However, when mortgage payments etc. are taken out of that calculation inflation (measured as the EU-Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices) fell by only 1.7% in 2009. A large majority of people depending on social welfare payments do not have mortgages so it is this 1.7% figure that should apply to them. 
However, Government’s ‘justification’ also ignores the fact that the Christmas bonus payment was not paid in 2009 and this in itself reduced the value of the payments by 2%.
If the Government provided the facts on this issue it would, in reality provide a justification for NOT reducing social welfare rates in Budget 2010. “Instead, the facts were misrepresented, to justify a deeply unjust series of actions; this is totally unacceptable”.
A Government committed to fairness would now set out a pathway to reverse the cuts in social welfare payments introduced unfairly in Budget 2010. A society is measured by the way it treats its poorest and most excluded people. At this moment Ireland’s poorest people remain the hardest hit by the unfair 2010 Budget.