Budget - Still not happy...

So we have had two major(ish) u-turns on the latest budget. One on medical cards, but still 5% of pensioners will lose their medical card and one on the 1% "Lenihan Levy" which means that if you earn €17,540 you don't pay tax but if you earn €17,541 you do as P. O'Neil points out over in Irish Election. I'm still not happy with that as I work in retail so therefore have to work Sundays and public holidays meaning I get overtime and have to pay the tax. I worked it out. On my average wage the Government will get what it will cost me to go to College next year! I agree with the unions that the limit should be set at €22,000.

But now attention is moving on to the cuts in Education and to a lesser extent Social Welfare. Will the Government u-turn on these I doubt. Schools look like they won't re-open in January due to health and safety concerns. 16 yr olds lose their disability benefit (to save 0.07% of the departmental budget!!!!!!). Lenihan has targetted the old, the sick and the young!

This PR Budget, has blown up in their faces! They would be better off re-writing or better yet Lenihan and Harney resigning.

You could add Mary Coughlan to that list as she has shown how useless she is in her current post as Tánasite. What an embarrassment to Brian Cowen this government must be, which is ultimately a reflection on him as he appointed them. The Greens don't come out much better with Mary White trying to claim that the Greens were going to pull out over the Medical Card, they weren't! The gainers from this have been Labour, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and Independents, especially Finian McGrath and newly indpendent Joe Behan. I think next years local's are a near dead cert loss for Fianna Fail over the Budget.

I do apologise for the incoherency of this post, but my mind is frazzled from last night