The New Class War

One of the things that this recession has exposed is the growing class divisions that have once again arisen in Ireland. We are living in a society where senior civil servants get paid more than the President of the United States of America, in contrast to other citizens who fear a cut in social welfare or the old age pension in the next budget will see them go without adequate heating for the rest of the Winter. We live in a nation where greedy bankers ,who have brought the economy to its knees causing the return of mass emigration and unemployment, can escape justice, but a family can lose their home for falling behind on payments. We live in a country where protesting against rising education fees is a greater crime than building slums for mass profit then allowing your company to go bankrupt to avoid having to pay your hard working sub contractors.
There are hundreds of thousands of Irish people living in fear of this states next budget, believing it will cut them to the bone. Its not a case of losing their disposal income, but rather the real fear of losing their homes, their cars, their means of providing for their children. Our government says we must all share the pain. What they don't say is that the rich of this country have been allowed to go through the celtic tiger years paying an effective tax rate of 20%. They also fail to mention the scores of Irish senior civil servants who get paid more than Barack Obama. Included among them is our glorious Taoiseach, but there are many others.
The head of the National Treasury Management Agency (The group set up in response to the corruption found in our baking sector) John Corrigan is paid in excess of €500,000 a year. Brendan McDonagh, the Head of NAMA also earns over €500,000. Padraig McManus, The head of the ESB gets €458,309 per annum, while  John Mullins of Bord Gais gets €344,000.  Declan Collier the CEO of the Dublin Airport Authority gets €478,100. An Post's Donal Connell gets paid €423,000 per year. David Gunning of Coillte gets €343,000. There are many others we could name but I think you get the point. This blog does not not believe these people are "sharing the pain".

The established media, at both national and local gutter press level have been making a serious attempt to vilify the unemployed over the past year. They support the establishment view that alot of our problems are currently caused by the four hundred and thirty thousand people on welfare. We have over 13% unemployment. Two and half years ago we had closer to 4%. Whats not been mentioned by Fianna Fail and their media collaborators these days is that the reason we have high unemployment is because of the staggering levels of corruption allowed by our government to fester during the tiger years, and because of Fianna Fails incompetent handling of our economic crisis. There has been a general concensus among the government and the "main" opposition to criminalise the ordinary people of Ireland. Only Sinn Féin have stood against this vile practice.
This blog regrets that it has heard many horror stories from normal people, who up to two years ago were contributing to our economy, and are now left on the scrapheap. They have told us how they cannot get employment without retraining, and they cannot get retraining as FAS are apparently bankrupt, Now that's a real catch 22. They have told us how members of social welfare, supporting the governments policy, have clandestinely suggested they should look for employment "abroad". Most terribly, some have told us that they had to break up with their partners due to the unfairness and sexist policy of the department of social protection. Currently, Irish couples are treated as equals in the eyes of the Irish taxation system, with both paying their own taxes. However, in the eyes of the department of social protection, the partner not working is treated as the dependent of the other. In the now common scenario, where both partners are unemployed, the woman is treated as the dependent of the man, and her social welfare is cut to €130 a week. It can become even more complicated when kids are involved. What kind of system is this to have in place in a progressive western nation in the year 2010? This blog can say with absolute certainly that the regressive policies of the current Fianna Fail/green coalition have led to couples breaking up, marriages ending and children being left with only one parent. Let that be the epitaph of this cruel government.

Sinn Féin stands alone against the slash and burn policies of the other parties. Sinn Féin have put forward a progressive alternative budget that reduces no citizen below an acceptable threshold of wealth. Sinn Féin propose mass tax reform and the introduction of a €7 billion stimulus to get Ireland back to work. Sinn Féin opposes class division and stands alone for an Ireland of Equals.