‘We must stabilise the Budget deficit,’ he also said, ‘but we are doing it in a fair way.’ That was another blatant lie.
The whole thrust of the measures announced is to fall on the shoulders of workers and social welfare recipients. There was a ruse to pretend that the Government was also attacking the rich by a minor imposition on multimillionaire tax exiles. But with brazen arrogance, Minister Lenihan stated baldly in the course of his speech that the 12.5% tax on corporate profits would not change and was here to stay. In this the Government showed that it is primarily a servant of big business.
Of 39 countries in the continent of Europe, only four have lower corporate tax rates than Ireland – Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Cyprus. Sweden’s rate is double Ireland’s while Belgium’s is almost three times greater.
If Ireland had a similar corporate tax rate as Sweden, it would have brought in an extra €6 billion extra in tax on profits last year. But the cuts and extra tax inflicted mainly on working people and the poor yesterday amount to €4billion. That is a deliberate political decision of a right wing government.
The attack on the level of unemployment payments is reprehensible. It amounts to a blatant discrimination against young workers whose payments are to be halved.
But the cut of €70 per week for an unemployed person of any age who refuses a job offer is a charter for slave conditions. It is designed to force workers to accept jobs on miserable wages as part of the strategy to cut wages right across the board.
Workers, public and private, need to unite to mount a massive campaign of opposition to this savage attack, kick this Government out and open a discussion on a fundamental and radical alternative way of organising our society in contrast to this broken, capitalist system.
News reports have not yet provided a definitive account of the extent of the IDF attack on the flotilla of eight humanitarian aid ships on their way to Gaza. However it is clear that IDF forces have taken over some of the ships and at least 10 unarmed activists have been slaughtered and others injured. There are at least eleven Irish nationals on this flotilla and we do not yet know the condition they are in.
The cynical posturing of the Green Party in calling for a January General Election for the “good of the country” will not save it from annihilation when the Irish people go to vote. In three and a half years in government, the Greens have shown themselves to be no more than a clutch of arch opportunists who were quite happy to assist Fianna Fáil make working class people pay for the consequences of the economic and political crimes of that party who carry full responsibility for the disaster which has been viswited on society.
1pm, Thurs 28th Apr, Queen’s House, Queen Street
Christine Thomas, author of the new book ’It doesn’t have to be like this - Women and the Struggle for Socialism’ spoke to Sarah Wrack about why such a book was necessary.