Gains from Budget will be eaten up by inflation
THE Budget announcement is the biggest con ever. Everything that Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe announced for the working class and pensioners is wiped out by the 8% inflation.
As a single pensioner, I am not entitled to the winter fuel allowance and there are a lot of pensioners like me who get very few allowances on top of our pension.
As far as I can see, what was announced on Tuesday is too little to help pensioners or the less welloff. Also, a lot of what was offered will not come into effect till later this year or even next year.
What we need is help now, not further down the line.
We cannot wait when we are struggling now.
DAVID BURKE, Gorey, Co. Wexford. … THE hospitality sector is not pleased with Minister Paschal Donohoe because he will not retain the 9% VAT rate. When he reduced it to 9%, did prices come down in every restaurant etc? No.
In fact, in some cases they were increased, so when the VAT rate reverts back to 13.5%, prices will go back up again.
The Minister was correct when he claimed there was pricegouging by some in the trade, so let’s have no more tiresome sob stories from this sector.
J. McCOURT, Dundalk, Co. Louth. … FOR all the interest that our leaders demonstrated in declaring their determination to be climatefriendly, Budget 2023 was an absolute failure in relation to investment in wind farms.
With one of the biggest coastlines in the EU, the lack of investment in wind energy, to ease our country away from fossil fuels, is a disgrace. Shame on them.
PAUL DORAN, Dublin 22.
Warming tips
ONE method of keeping warm this winter without incurring costs is to buy a quality sleeping bag and sit in it, in your favourite chair, when watching television.
G.M. LAVERICK, via email. … TO SAVE money on expensive electricity bills, befriend some of those people who ‘light up a room when they go into it’.
IAN DUCKWORTH, via email. …HERE’S a good beat-the-cold tip. When visitors are leaving your house, get all the hugs, promises and goodbyes done before opening the door.
Then open it, get them all out fast, and get it closed. ROY BUTTERFIELD,
West Yorkshire, UK.
Life is cheap
VOLODYMYR Zelensky’s demand for more and more powerful weapons suggests that he, and members of his government, believe that a military solution is the only acceptable answer to this brutal conflict.
Mr Zelensky continues to refuse a ceasefire or to negotiate, believing (it would seem) that negotiations would not punish Putin to his satisfaction.
Meantime, war goes on and his brave soldiers continue to pay the ultimate price, in fear and horrorcharged conditions, for decisions made at a more opulent venue.
Mr Zelensky seems mightily proud of his rapid rebuild and replacement of the structures destroyed by Putin’s Blitzkrieg.
How do you replace a father, mother, son, daughter, or any member of a family?
When they are gone, they’re gone for good, leaving behind everlasting heartache and horrid circumstances.
Statements like ‘a military solution is the only acceptable solution to this conflict’ are all very well. What they show is just how little that human life is valued by warlords in wartime. The Second World War was a prime example of this.
Choosing war as the only acceptable solution to this conflict (which seems the consensus) must surely mean we have not seen an end to war in Europe.
PADDY DALY, Artane, Dublin 5.
App-alling bank tech
A RELATIVE of mine – who was not born today or yesterday – went to their bank for what they thought would be a straightforward transaction.
Armed with the account name, and BIC and IBAN numbers, they wanted to transfer a sum of money from their account to another account in a different Irish bank.
However, after queuing at the bank for the sole teller on duty, they were told that the bank ‘can’t do that for you’.
My relative was told they would have to go home and compete the transfer themselves via the bank’s app. Their request for assistance, and protests that they found online banking bewildering, fell on deaf ears. On their return home, they attempted to make the transfer via the bank’s app but discovered almost a week later that it had not completed successfully.
Enter their tech-savvy son, who spent an hour wrangling with and shouting at the app before finally completing the transaction.
He described the app experience as ‘appalling’, ‘incredibly frustrating’ and ‘not fit for purpose’.
It is my understanding that money transfers date from the late 19th century. In fact, the
knowledge and means to complete such transactions has been available for around 150 years.
Yet a modern, digital bank ‘can’t’ do it for a customer. Or rather, won’t!