People Before Profit Alliance
Press Statement on Budget – 7/12/2010
Budget protects the wealthy and contains no jobs
Unions must call general strike to allow public anger to be expressed
In a statement, the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) have described the budget delivered today by the Fianna Fail Green government as a shameful attack on the vulnerable and least well-off in Irish society.
Cllr Joan Collins said
“This budget of many cuts will be a step too far for many families. With attacks on social welfare, the minimum wage, child benefit and training allowances and increases in taxes for the lower paid, workers and the unemployed will be faced with stark choices. It has become increasingly difficult to pay all the bills, feed the family and get the kids educated. This heartless government have made the decision to drive more families and their children into poverty”
PBPA said that government claims about necessary “adjustments” to deal with the current economic and financial crisis were utterly dishonest spin to mask a deliberate and ruthless decision to make working people and the poor pay for the crisis, while protecting the super-wealthy and those responsible for the economic crash.
Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett said:
“This is an utterly shameful budget that has deliberately chosen to attack the vulnerable and least-well-off in our society while protecting the super-wealthy and those that created the crisis in the first place.
Contrary to the government’s claims that this sort of budget is necessary or inevitable, the government have made a choice and that choice is to attack those who have little or nothing while leaving virtually untouched the wealthiest in our society.
The government could have chosen to impose taxes on wealth and high earners but instead have decided to brutally attack working people and the needy, while barely touching the wealth and earnings of the richest in our society.
But this budget is not only brutally unfair it will also do more damage to the economy, further depressing demand, strangling growth and doing virtually nothing to create jobs or stimulate the economy. At the behest of the IMF and EU, Irish society and our economy are being sacrificed to protect the bankers, bondholders and the super-wealthy”.
The PBPA believes that only fair and viable way out of the current crisis is to burn the bondholders, tell the EU and IMF to take a hike and impose taxes on the vast wealth of the super-rich in our society.
In conjunction with the United Left Alliance we have called for a 24 general strike to oppose the austerity policies of the government. Its now clear we need real action to resist this madness and let this government and the incoming one know that we are not putting up with this anymore.
For more info/confirmation contact:
Richard Boyd Barrett 086-7814520
Joan Collins 0863888151
Please note PBPA will hold a post budget public meeting on the 15th December, details HERE