Ireland: Budget 2009

[Delster]

In the spirit of the other thread where people were saying they''d love to see threads about Ireland (or any other countries for that matter

), I''m curious what people from abroad make of the Budget we just had yesterday...

Some ''highlights'':

A 1% ''income levy'' on everyone who makes less than €100,000 per year, for the next five years, even on the lowest earners
A 2% ''income levy'' on everyone who makes more than €200,000 per year, for the next five years
(The income levy is in addition to income tax, which is 42% in the highest tax band)

Tax relief on pension savings almost halved

Phasing out of childcare support, and discontinuation of child support to parents of children over 18 but under 19 in full-time education

8c added to the price of every litre of petrol (that''s about 42c US added onto every gallon of petrol as of midnight last night)
50c added to the price of every bottle of wine
50c added to the price of every packet of cigarettes

And the real kicker:
The withdrawal of the free medical care that is currently provided to over-70s (there''s a climbdown happening on this one though, the outcry has been enormous)

Lots more detail here

 

[bee*]

Ugh don''t talk about it

It''s awful isn''t it! I hope that they do a turn around on the medical card for the over 70''s though. The tax levy isn''t great at all either. The part that annoys me the most is that we''ve already given our tax money to bail out the banks and now they''re also allowed to pass the charges onto us, basically charging us again

What do you think about it yourself Delster?

 

[Delster]

You don't wanna know! It's not repeatable in polite society!

The polite answer is something like this:

I'd be prepared to swallow the medicine if it meant the truly vulnerable in our society would be protected (and by 'vulnerable' I don't mean the newly panicked get-rich-quick-on-the-property-boom cohort), and I would do so without a whimper if I knew that was the case, but... well the medical cards fiasco says it all doesn't it. What a horrible thing that was to do

ETA - I think that's the most political thing I've ever said on PS. What's gotten into me tonight?

 

[ksinger]

What was the rationale for dropping the medical care for the over 70''s? I don''t have enough background on Ireland, but that sounds fairly draconian to me. And yeah, I think no matter where you live, the "little guy" is going to be hurt most by all this bailout stuff...

 

[iheartscience]

I am also not super familiar with Ireland, but I do know the economy there has been hurting. The tax increase probably won''t be noticeable at least. But the taxes on wine, cigarettes and gas will be!

Can you explain the childcare and child support to me? Does the government offer childcare help in the form of money or vouchers?

And cutting free healthcare for the elderly is just terrible...I''m shocked they would propose that and I hope it gets put back into place!

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

So sad. I know the celtic tiger is on its way out, but to hurt the most vulnerable members of society.
Honestly, all I know about current Irish politics is the Bertie (sp) scandal going on when I was there

 

[bee*]

Your childcare allowance comes in the form of money over here. All parent''s get it up until their child is 18 (think it''s 21 if they decide to go to university). They''re now stopping that for 18 year olds.
The main reason that they have taken away the medical cards is that they are in the red for a hell of a lot of money and I think the figure being floated out today is that they will save €100 million by doing this. One of the Fianna Fail back benchers even stepped down from the party today because of it. I really hope that they back down. They already increased the threshold limit today so hopefully they''re beginning to realise what they did was wrong.

Our government have stepped in with a guarantee to all the banks over here so that none of them will close down also so there''s war going on about that too.

I totally agree with you on that Delster.