Budget 2014 is a Template for Mass Emigration- Brady

Wicklow Sinn Féin councillor John Brady has described budget 2014 as grossly unfair and a template for continued mass youth emigration.

Wicklow Sinn Féin councillor John Brady said “In budget 2014 Fine Gael and Labour have let the people down as we witness again the actions of a government that is arrogant, out of touch and utterly indifferent to the devastation that a cocktail of cutbacks, unemployment and emigration has had on our society. This budget should have been about reducing the tax burden on ordinary families, protecting public services and investing in jobs. Instead it is another anti-growth and unfair budget.”

Cllr Brady went on to say “A fair budget would have given low and middle income households a break by putting money back into their pockets. Instead in this seventh consecutive austerity budget we have had a direct attack on people from the cradle to the grave.”“Getting rid of the bereavement grant, withdrawing the telephone allowance for the elderly and carers and cuts to social protection supports by up to a third for young people out of work are shocking. We can only conclude that this government is determined to leave struggling households in their despair and to force many thousands more of our young people on the emigration path that has already been travelled by 300,000 people over the last 4 years.”

Brady continued “Sinn Féin’s Budget 2014 proposals are truly fair because we have sought to give low and middle income families a break by putting money back into their pockets. We have shown clearly that there were choices to be made by the government. Unfortunately they choose to attack the most vulnerable in society again and this time they are kicking them even harder, giving them the choice of suffering even more hardship and poverty at home or taking the boat or plane.”

Brady concluded “We will quickly see the real impact of this budget on people. People who are unemployed, women on maternity leave, students, people who are lingering on lengthy housing lists and the elderly. Even in death people will feel the impact of the budget with the withdrawal of the bereavement grant.”