Single people always pay the biggest price
IN this Budget, ministers are saying that with the increases, pensioners will see a €13 rise in their social welfare payments every week. What a load of rubbish. I am a pensioner and I do not get the Fuel Allowance.
When I had to sign on before I became a pensioner, I was entitled to the Fuel Allowance, but as soon as I became a pensioner I was told I was no longer entitled to it. I have to depend on a car for transport to the shops as the local bus service only does two trips a day. So with fuel price hikes and the carbon tax, I reckon that I could be down at least €40 a week.
I am a single pensioner and find a single person pays a little more on everything compared to a family. A single person gets hit the hardest. The sooner this uncaring Government is gone, the better.
DAVID BURKE, Gorey, Co. Wexford.
Got what we deserved
NOW that Ireland has been dragged onto a level playing pitch by the OECD in relation to our rate of corporation tax, let us hope that the spoiled child of Europe has learned a lesson and will now show a more caring and responsible attitude towards the international community.
We were rightly seen as a greedy lot who were willing to sell our souls to the lowest bidder in order to gain an advantage in attracting multinational investment.
It’s an absolute disgrace that large multinational companies would pour huge numbers of well paid, hi-tech jobs into what is already a rich country with a tiny population, while ignoring the poorer, heavily populated countries of Europe and the world.
When these investments were being announced here, there was no mention of our low corporation tax and we were told it was because of our young, well-educated population. This amounted to an appalling insult to the international community as it implied other nationalities were too stupid to work on the companies’ products. I find it amazing the EU and the OECD tolerated this appalling situation for so long. FRANK O’CONNOR,
Blarney, Co. Cork.
Discredited industry
HOW sickening to learn of yet another State handout to the beleaguered and discredited greyhound industry. It will receive a Budget allocation of €17.6million, despite the horrific revelations of animal cruelty and massive overbreeding that rocked the ‘sport’ in 2019 following an RTÉ Investigates programme. I wonder at the decision-making process that led to politicians opting to use taxpayers’ money to continue propping up this failing industry. JOHN FITZGERALD,
Callan, Co. Kilkenny.
DUP blunders
I FIND it all so risible when I hear the DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson saying recently that it’s not acceptable for Northern Ireland to have to fall within the jurisdiction of a court he believes should have no control over it.
This was his response after a High Court ruling over his party’s boycott of the north-south meetings. When Mr Donaldson comes out with these utterances, it’s as if he is speaking for all the people of Northern Ireland. I would like to remind him that he does not speak for all the citizens of the North. I would also like to remind him that the people of Northern Ireland voted for the Good Friday Agreement. It seems he is now prepared to put all this at risk by asking for the Protocol to be removed.
The 1998 agreement managed to create an environment in which more than two-thirds of people from across all communities were content with the status quo. I have always seen this as an incredible achievement that has centred on a relationship of trust between British and Irish governments on the proper functioning of devolved institutions and on close north/ south and east/west cooperation.
I find it baffling as to why the DUP and its leader would want to put all this at risk. It might be a good idea if Mr Donaldson could work on seeing outside his own party and incorporate pragmatic policies that will provide the North with the best overall outcome. JOHN O’BRIEN, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.