Voters in need of help, not kite flying demos

YOU can smell the general election in the air, can’t you? It might be technically two years away but trust me all is not good in the Government.

Leo Varadkar is back to his old tricks as Taoiseach, flying kites left, right and centre, and trying to show his main coalition partner, Micheal Martin and Fianna Fail in particular, who is boss.

The latest nonsense about giving everyone in the country an extra €1,000 in their pocket via tax cuts was a deliberate attempt to undermine Finance Minister Michael Mcgrath before serious Budget negotiations get underway.

He used some of his junior minister’s attack dogs to spread the word and then denied it was anything to do with him – although he publicly admitted he is in favour of the move.

I personally have no problem with tax cuts. Irish people are paying far too much but we need to help those on modest incomes who need it most.

The Universal Social Charge brought in to get us all to pay for then bankrupt banks was only supposed to be a temporary measure and yet here we are years and years later still paying it to the tune of €4billion a year.

The country has never been in such a better state financially and running budget surpluses for the first time in my lifetime.

Many working families not on big incomes but with big mortgages, high rents and outside the threshold to get free medical cards or free third-level education could do with a dig out from the Government.

Whether that comes in mortgage interest relief, increased children’s allowance, a higher threshold to go on the higher 40% tax rate so all your overtime does not go to the Revenue, are things to be considered.

Perhaps the Universal Social Charge should be reduced or abolished for the thousands of families caught in the poverty trap.

Ask St Vincent De Paul if you don’t believe me but I can tell you there are hundreds of thousands of working families out there who are genuinely struggling from week to week at the moment and are planning to vote Sinn Fein to bail them out.

These are the people Michael Mcgrath and Michael Martin are thinking about.

A €1,000 tax cut for all that Varadkar advocates will only put more money in the pockets of the rich.

We need a fair and balanced budget for the people of Tallaght, Drogheda and Clonmel, not Dalkey or Castleknock. The continuing cost of living crisis is putting pressure on people and will also not be helped by increasing the excise duty on gas, diesel and petrol later this week and then again in September.

This is not the right time to do it and it is just being done to keep the Greens, the scourge of rural Ireland, happy.

If the Taoiseach wants to last the full term he needs to grow up and start treating his fellow ministers in Cabinet with respect.

He must stop playing games and put his kites back in their box. He may be panicking because Fine Gael’s poll ratings are in decline and some of his party colleagues are asking if he is the person to lead them into the next election.

There is enough money in the kitty to give everyone in Irish society a financial boost.

With the unemployment rate at just over 3% and loads of jobs out there, there really is no excuse for anyone living on the dole and not working.

Anyone unemployed should be made to work at least two days a week for the State before they can collect their money.

I can tell you of loads of greens along roads and around housing estates all over Ireland that are in dire need of cutting.

If Taoiseach wants to last the full term he needs to grow up