Families got short-changed in the Budget

IF we take a typical family of two adults and three children and compare those who work with those who don’t, we find that a middle income couple each earning 35k are a mere €284 a year better off, compared to the same couple on the dole who are a massive €1,428 a year better off after Tuesday’s Budget.

It’s not just the Jobseeker’s Allowance that went up, numerous other payments did too and when totalled up a couple who can’t find a job in an economy with virtually full employment benefited by an amount that is five times that of a couple on the average industrial wage .

How is this fair? So much for Leo wanting to look after those who get up early to work, all his Government has done is encourage idleness, not to mention his attack on small businesses with increased VAT and wages costs.

Anyone who works and wants to, needs to look elsewhere when the general election finally comes.

STEPHEN KEARON, Ballinaclash, Co. Wicklow

Greedy hoteliers

SINCE the minister increased the VAT rate on hotels, restaurants and hairdressers back to the normal rate of 13.5% there is somebody on the radio or TV from rural Ireland saying what a disaster it will be. On Wednesday we had Michael Healy-Rae and Noel Cunningham from Harvey’s Point Hotel on TV3’s Tonight Show.

When the reduction was introduced by Michael Noonan in 2011 and paid for by him raiding the private pension pots of pensioners in his budgets for years there was not a word from the Healy-Raes or the hoteliers like Mr Cunningham saying: ‘It’s not right to rob the pensioners to reduce our VAT.’

The prices in hotels have continued to rise year on year despite most of their employee’s being on the minimum wage and their hotels having high occupancy.

They just want somebody, anybody – the pensioners, the taxpayers they don’t care who – to subsidize their private businesses and satisfy their greed. DENNIS DENNEHY,

Co. Dublin.

We’ve paid our share!

FIRSTLY I take great issue with comments made by Áine Bonner (among others) in the Mail on Wednesday.

Pensioners like myself have already paid into the economy, bought our homes, raised our children and educated them – mostly without any help from Government. But here’s the rub: a great many of us are still helping our children financially, with childcare and providing them with a roof over their heads if they are unable to make exorbitant mortgage repayments. Basically, I’m saying we have paid our dues all our working lives and should therefore not be vilified for having a certain amount of assistance.

Also, as we age we find that our medical care is high on our list of priorities. This doesn’t come cheaply and, whilst we welcome the cut of 50c in prescription charges, medical bills can still be high. Believe it or not, many older people have a great deal of pride and ask for nothing more than what they have paid in.

Secondly, if people wish to have a large family, that is entirely their prerogative but please don’t expect other members of the population to fund this expense. It’s your own choice and should be made after proper consideration. It’s not as if there’s no assistance.

Finally I would like to make the point that the rate of unemployment benefits in Ireland is unprecedented. Friends of ours from the UK could not believe the huge amounts that the long-term unemployed receive. Where is the incentive to go out and get work when you can just as easily sit and home and be able to afford, in some cases, to smoke, drink, gamble, have huge families and take foreign holidays?

SUE CULLEN, by email.

A chink of light

I NOTED the content of the article THE Late Late Show is broadcasting from London tonight for the first time since 1982, and host Ryan Tubridy has been getting into the swing of things by visiting some famous landmarks in the city. But what was Tubs thinking as he posed up outside No.10 Downing Street? Every week we give you the chance to write an amusing caption to a photo from the week’s news. The best entry wins a €30 Eason token. Send your entries by post to Caption Competition, Irish Daily Mail, Embassy House, Herbert Park Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, or by email to captions@dailymail.ie. Entries should arrive by next Thursday, October 18. Last week we asked about this photo of current Downing Street resident Theresa May jiving to Dancing Queen as she arrived onstage for her speech at the Tory Party Conference. The winning entry, printing above, came from Anthony Mooney in Dublin 9. about the lone mother who was ‘hammered by the Budget’. Based on the information in the article, she might be entitled to a payment of Working Family Payment of between €45 and €60 per week if she is not already receiving it.

MICHAEL LENNON, Dublin 15.

I’ll dance to Abba’s tune... but not Europe’s!