Workers and Unemployed Action Candidates in the local election, Cllr Pat English, Martina Maher and Pearl Sheehan are asking the public to send the Government a clear message “ We’ve Had Enough”.
This is a Government of broken promises which has targeted low and middle income families while protecting a golden circle of the rich and powerful in society.
The Local Elections must send a clear message to Government “ Hands Off Ordinary People”.
In the 2011 General Election, Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore asked the public to ‘vote for change’. They promised to “burn the bondholders” , they promised “not another cent for the banks”, they promised “ to protect the vulnerable” and it was going to be “Labour’s Way not Frankfurt’s Way” .
The Fine Gael/Labour Party Government has broken all promises. They took the public for fools.
They were only a wet week in office when they turned their coats and donned the clothes of the Fianna Fáil/Green Party Government. This Government embraced the austerity agenda with a vengeance. An array of tax increases and cuts to services followed and facilities like St. Michael’s Unit and Kickham Barracks were closed.
The sick , elderly , medical card holders, carers, pensioners and children, even the dead, were targeted for cuts like the loss of medical cards, cuts to child benefit , heating allowances, telephone rental, respite grants, disabled persons grants, death grants and the list goes on.
Families were hit by House and Water Taxes. It is morally wrong, unjust and unfair.
This Government , like the last, is making ordinary people pay for a recession in which they had no hand, act or part in creating while the rich fat cats get off scot free.
Workers and Unemployed Action have three candidates in the Local Elections for the Cahir/Clonmel District, Cllr Pat English, Martina Maher and Pearl Sheehan who will faithfully stand up for the ordinary man and woman and their families and bring back the message of fairness and job creation to the powers that be.
Cllr Pat English
Martina Maher
Pearl Sheehan
Government must drop plans for USC hike for older people – Age Action
Age Action has warned the Government that its plans to increase the rate of Universal Social Charge (USC) for pensioners and medical card holders from 4% to 7% from January would cause untold hardship among a section of society which is already struggling to make ends meet.
“During our consultations with older people across Ireland in recent months we heard time and again from older people who are being forced to choose between food, fuel and medications,” Age Action spokesperson Eamon Timmins said. “This unacceptable situation is a result of increasing demands on their fixed pensions from new taxes and charges. Another hike in the USC would push some older people over the edge.”
The older people’s charity noted that the reduced rate of 4% for people aged over-70 and medical card holders under-70 was introduced in 2011 and was due to expire at the start of 2015, as reported in today’s Irish Independent. But it urged the Government to reverse this decision and maintain the reduced rate.
“Given the hardship which older people on low incomes are facing, it would be ludicrous to scrap the reduced rate, knowing the suffering it would cause,” Mr Timmins said. “This government was elected on the promise that it would protect the vulnerable. If it is serious about honouring this promise, it cannot introduce yet another tax hike, and take more money out of the pockets of low income pensioners.”
Age Action has called on the Government to make a definitive statement, before the European and local elections, that the 4% reduced rate, and those eligible for it, will remain unchanged and that plans to increase it to 7% will be dropped.
Age Action’s consultations with older people across Ireland highlighted the huge financial pressure that many were facing. From their fixed pensions (and falling pensions in the case of some older people), they are paying a long list of new taxes and charges including property tax, hiked prescription charges, soaring fuel bills (with cuts to their fuel supports), rising telephone charges (following the abolition of the phone allowance last year), and rising medical costs (for older people in poor health who are losing their medical cards on income grounds).
FOR MEDIA QUERIES CONTACT EAMON TIMMINS, HEAD OF ADVOCACY AND COMMUNICATIONS, AGE ACTION, 01-4756989 OR 087-9682449.
May 16, 2014
Eamon
Eamon Timmins
Head of Advocacy and Communications at Age Action Ireland Ltd | 30/31 Lr Camden Street | Dublin 2
Tel: 01 4756989 | Fax: 01 4756011 | Email: eamon.timmins@ageaction.ie |
Website: www.ageaction.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AgeActionIrelandwww.facebook.com/AgeActionIreland | Twitter:www.twitter.com/AgeAction
Workers & Unemployed Action 