Yes, Christmas is a time of giving..but not to Tory TDS
AS Christmas approaches we should reach out to those in need. So spare a thought for the Irish Tory party ministers who can’t get by on €130,000 a year.
A delegation of at least eight Fine Gael junior ministers this week made their way to the Finance Minister and begged him to do something about the dreadful accommodation situation.
This pitiful procession tried to convince Paschal Donohoe it is almost impossible to find somewhere to stay and because of it people are suffering.
While there might be more people than ever sleeping on the streets and 3,000 children warehoused in hotels and B&BS, in true Fine Gael fashion the Michael Buble minsters were looking after themselves. If ever you wondered why the homeless crisis was not being tackled you need look no further than this bunch of me fein Fine Gaelers.
The sheer arrogance and effrontery of politicians on huge salaries moaning about not being able to afford hotel bills when ordinary workers are paying half their wages in rents is an outrage.
One of these goons complained he is paying up to €500 a week to stay in the capital while the Dail is sitting.
Do they want pity? When students are paying more than that from their meagre grants for dingy flats?
It’s not surprising nothing is being done to help the homeless when morally-challenged ministers lobby Mr Donohoe for extra expenses.
It would be bad enough if they could not find accommodation, but it’s not a case of there being no room at the inn, it’s just they want you and I to pay their bills.
This is a tale of two cities and the one Pat Breen and the moaning ministers live in is a very different from the one ordinary workers are forced to inhabit.
This week a report by Cuba holidays found Dublin to be one of the most expensive cities in the world to visit. They should try living there. When ordinary workers are paying as much as €2,000 a month in rent and can’t save to put a deposit on a house there was bound to be outrage that junior ministers were complaining about forking out a few hundred euro in hotel bills.
There have been claims these ministers are out of touch, that’s not the case, they just don’t give a s**t.
They genuinely feel aggrieved and consider themselves hard done by and believe they have good reason to be.
You see, ministers of State have a basic TD’S salary of €94,535, plus a ministerial payment of €35,319, bringing their total income to €129,854.
Dail deputies from outside the capital are entitled to claim between €25,295 and €34,065 in unvouched travel and accommodation expenses annually, but ministers can’t.
Ordinary backbenchers can also claim a lot more, as Mr Breen and his mates know only too well.
Back in the summer of 2015 the Irish Mirror revealed as a TD for Co Clare he earned a total of €637,464 since 2011, a figure that included the highest expenses bill of €274,420.
More than €600,000 in a four-year period, that’s almost like winning the Lotto, so it’s no wonder Pat and the lads are feeling the pinch.
When the likes of Threshold and the Peter Mcverry Trust are warning the homelessness crisis is spiralling out of control, it is sickening to find ministers complaining about being unable to pass hotel bills on to the taxpayer.
It is understood while Minister Donohoe was sympathetic to the hotel lobbyists’ cries of poverty he told them it would be a case of hard times until after the election.
Meanwhile, in Dickensian Dublin there are growing fears families will be kicked out of hotels, guesthouses, hostels and B&BS as they shut over the Christmas period.
Our Tory Boy Taoiseach was asked about the Irish Mirror front page story warning of the “temporary evictions” and his response was, “It is something we will manage”.
He was also asked in the Dail if he had a plan B for helping homeless families facing Christmas on the streets. Plan B? Leo Varadkar doesn’t even have a plan A...and nor does he want one.
The reality is long as Fine Gael remain above 30% in the polls nothing is going to change, including their ideological opposition to building social housing as it means they can stay in power and hang on to their big salaries, pensions and privileges.
The moaning ministers will have to make do on their €130,000 while muttering to themselves they deserve a lot more.
Then again, so does the public. But they keep voting for them, so maybe they deserve what they get. Pat Breen
In true fashion FG ministers are looking after themselves