posted 28 May 2011 04:13 by Focus Ireland
We hoped that this new Government - whatever difficult decisions it has to make - would at least stop singling out the poorest in our society to take the blame for the decisions of the super-rich.
Now Minister Richard Bruton has initiated a new attack on the poor - this time the working poor. He has published far reaching proposals to undermine the wages of over 200,000 of the lowest paid. Bruton's proposals set aside the detailed recommendations from the Government's own independent experts Duffy and Walsh. You can read a detailed comparison of how Brutons proposals differ from those of Duffy-Walsh here.
You can read up on how these JLCs and EROs work and how they impact on those on lowest wages here.
The Poor Can't Pay will be working with a range of other groups in the Low Pay Coalition to oppose Bruton's proposals. We will keep you informed about how this develops. |
posted 13 Dec 2010 09:49 by Focus Ireland
Thanks to all those who helped us send almost 2,500 e-mails directly to TDs in the three days before the vote on the Minimum Wage.
Also to those who also signed up to the Claiming our Future campaign which exceeded its target of 5,000 by 2,000. Between both campaigns we also managed to initiate a record number of phone calls to TDs.
Of course, they ignored the campaign and the interests of people living on low incomes. But equally, of course, the fight to restore this cut will go on.
One of aspect of this will be the Labour Party running a private members bill in the Dail on the evenings of Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th his week to keep the pressure up, and the voting on the IMF bailout will provide another occasion for arguments to be put forward and people to show where their priorities lie.
If you want to go and listen to the debate contact cathy.flanagan@labour.ie or aspeed@siptu.ie saying you are a supporter of The Poor Can't Pay.
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posted 7 Dec 2010 11:52 by Focus Ireland
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updated 7 Dec 2010 15:35
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It was a cowardly budget, full of nasty cuts that the
Minister was not honest enough to include in his speech. And now they plan to
rush it through the Dáil before TDs have a chance to talk to the voters – or
engage with their consciences.
But it is not over yet. We need to engage all those
who will be unfairly hit by this budget and all those who are angry about its
unfairness to put pressure on their TDs.
Some TDs will shy away from voting against the budget
because it will bring the Government down. We need to make them realize the
strength of resistance to the welfare cuts. But even those who will vote for
the welfare cuts might draw the line at voting for the cut in the Minimum Wage
– this is not a budget measure and defeating it will not automatically lead to
the Government falling.
There are three things you can do.
But we need to do them now.
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posted 1 Dec 2010 12:57 by Focus Ireland
The debate on the cuts in the National Minimum Wage is beginning to take shape.
First it is important to realise that although this proposals was included in the 'Four Year National Recovery Plan' and is seen as part of the IMF/EU loan agreement, it is not a budgetary matter - cutting the National Minimum wage will not save the Government or taxpayer a single cent and will not reduce our borrowing requirement either.
Third, the Government will have to bring in separate legislation to cut the Minimum Wage - and it will have to be voted on separately from the budget and related issues. The current Minimum Wage Act 2000 allows the Minister to set the original rate but only allows him/her to change it again on foot of an agreement between employers and trade unions (either in a national wage agreement or in the Labour Court). This measure was presumably designed to prevent increases going through without full agreement, but it now ensures that the Trade Unions have a veto on any cut. Unless they change the legislation.
The changed legislation on this does not belong in a Finance Bill so it seems certain it will be brought forward as a separate bill - to change the Minimum Wage Act so that the Minister can cut (or raise?) the rate whenever he/she wants. When this will be brought forward - whether before Christmas or in the new year - is still unclear.
It is here that that the focus of the campaign against the cut in the Minimum Wage must focus. By claiming that the Government, the rescue package and our banks will collapse if they are rejected, they may be able to force through the budget and the first wave of welfare cuts (though we will fight every inch on these). But the proposal to cut the national minimum wage will stand on its own as a vote in the Dails. TDs who may shy away from bringing down the Government on a budgetary measure may be encouraged to stand up on this one.
Eamon Gilmore opened up some elements of the debate in the Dail today the text is here and there is a video of it on the Facebook page (though it leaves out the replies - while they don't actually add much, it is useful to know what they are).
This issue highlights the common interest between those on social welfare and those on low earning. The Four Year Plan includes proposals for substantial welfare cuts. As we have previously noted, Social Justice Ireland have estimated that scale of these, but even greater cuts would be required if the Government were determined to maintain the current difference between welfare rates and the wages for a person working on the National Minimum Wage.
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posted 26 Nov 2010 09:40 by Focus Ireland
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updated 26 Nov 2010 10:04
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The Poor Can’t Pay has warned that the Government’s plan to cut the National Minimum Wage by €1 per hour could lead to welfare rates being slashed by up to €40 a week, an analysis that has been echoed by The Poor Can't Pay member, Social Justice Ireland.
Thh Poor Can't Pay spokesperson, Mike Allen of Focus Ireland, said: "It is clear from first glance that the 4 Year Plan puts most of the cost of paying for the economic crisis on people already struggling on low pay and welfare. The plan is yet another example of the current Government’s flawed logic as a more detailed look at it shows that it is totally inconsistent in its attempts to develop ‘the incentive to work’ for people on welfare.”
The Poor Can’t Pay group highlighted that the Four Year plan also insists that there must be “an incentive to work” for people on welfare and this means there must be a clear gap between what a person can claim on welfare and what they would earn if they managed to secure a low paid job.
Mike Allen said: “The cut that the Government proposes to make next year in the minimum wage amounts to a €40 a week reduction for a full-time worker. The take home pay of these workers will also be further slashed by the Government’s proposals to subject such low income earners to taxation.”
Mike Allen said: “Working by the Governments’ logic to maintain the current gap between those on the minimum wage and those who are on Job Seekers Allowance will require a significant cut in welfare – amounting to a 20% cut in the basic payment. If the Government persists in its narrow minded view that poverty wages will create jobs and that welfare rates must be below even those levels, this is where their logic will lead them.”
The Poor Can't Pay Coalition said it is seeking Government assurances that such reductions in unemployment payments will not take place. The problem for the Government is that if they give such assurances they are saying that they are ignoring their own policy on ‘incentive to work.’ All this confirms the view that the plan to cut the minimum wage is not a thought through policy but a panic measure so that they can appear strong to the international markets.
A technical explanation of how the cut in Minimum Wage would impact on the replacement ratios of those on social welfare can be found here.
The coalition group dismissed Minister Gormley's explanation that the cut in Minimum Wage cut was forced by the IMF saying that Irish politicians should be judged by what they actually vote for. The Poor Can't Pay also called on all opposition parties to confirm that they will reverse any decision to cut the minimum wage if they are part of the next Government. The Poor Can’t Pay welcomed Fine Gael’s announcement that if it is in Government it will seek to renegotiate the cut in the National Minimum Wage.
The Poor Can't Pay is a civil society coalition that believes those earning the minimum wage or living on social welfare should not be forced to pay the cost of our present economic crisis.
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posted 26 Oct 2010 12:17 by Focus Ireland
The leader of Fine Gael, the largest opposition party, Enda Kenny TD, has responded to The Poor Can't Pay "make a pledge" campaign, adding to a complex range of Fine Gael responses.
The Party Leader's response is supportive but falls short of making a pledge to oppose cuts in basic welfare rates for those already living in poverty. He stresses the scale of the crisis that we face and observes that "It has now become depressingly clear that everybody in our society will be affected by the measures required to undo the damage from this Government's reckless mismanagement of the economy and misguided response to the crisis."
Given that according to recent Sunday Business Post polls, Kenny is likely to become Taoiseach at the next election, his statement about the principles that underly Fine Gael's approach to fixing the the public finances is important. He states that, among other elements, this has consistently been to "protect the 'human shield' against poverty and isolation".
This rather unusual and not entirely clear phrase is reinforced by a statement that 'the principles underpinning our approach are fairness, solidarity and support for work and investment.' The full letter can be read here.
Previous responses from Fine Gael TDs and Senators have also tended to emphasis the theme of the importance of an incentive to work in dealing with welfare rates. Michael Noonan's reply, for instance states, that the Fine Gael position in the last budget was informed by, among other things, a concern for the "Protection for pensioners, children, the blind, carers or the disabled from cuts in social welfare" - notably excluding those on Job Seekers Allowance - and indeed lone parents - from his concerns. Several other Fine Gael TDs have stated simply that they opposed all welfare cuts in 2009. Which is, of course, the case.
The recent reply from Simon Coveney similarly highlights the need to maintain incentives to work and the serious and honest approach that Fine Gael will take to the financial crisis. However he is significantly warmer than Kenny or Noonan in his endorsement of the objectives of the campaign starting: First of all can I say that I absolutely agree with the sentiments and priorities of this campaign". He insightfully comments that: "You will hear politicians from all parties talking about the need to protect the most vulnerable in society during recession. I think that the three priorities that the Poor Can’t Pay campaign have outlined will test whether or not political parties mean what they say on this issue."
Recent positive replies have also been received from other Fine Gael TDs: Bernard Durkan (who notes the speeches against the 2009 cuts from his colleagues) and Andrew Doyle but do not go formally state that they make the proposed commitment. While Deputy Padraic McCormack and Phil Hogan specifically endorse the language of the request.
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posted 30 Aug 2010 08:05 by The Poor Can't Pay
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updated 30 Aug 2010 08:25
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According to RTE, the Department of Social Protection has confirmed that Minister O
Cuiv's extension of existing 'voluntary work' schemes will become compulsory. This provision was not in the initial Departmental press release but was touted strongly by the sunday papers. Whether this was always the plan or the Department has been bounced into this populist approach, this is an act of despair and even
threatens to damage the job prospects of those who take part. After 25
years and hundreds of millions on spent on 'labour market measures' the
Government seems to ahve learnt nothing.
Of course it is a good idea that
people who are unemployed should volunteer for good causes, and it would
be a very good idea if the Dept of Social Protection made it easier for
them to do so. It is good because useful work can be done, it will
help overcome isolation and it looks good on your CV.
But what
does it look like if you have on your CV that you participated in 'that
scheme which is designed to flush out the workshy and the dole cheats?
The ESRI has
repeatedly shown that public attitudes to the Community Employment
Scheme mean that people who include participating in such schemes on
their CVS are more likely to remain long-term unemployed than similarly qualified people who did not. Why? The ESRI argues that it is because
years of association of this scheme with measures to tackle to dole
fraud has stigmatized the scheme and the people who, in good faith,
participate in it. And CE is voluntary! What does it say about you that
you participated in a scheme that was compulsory?
It is unfortunate that Minister O Cuiv has been enticed down this counterproductive and divisive route. He is capable of imaginative 'out of the box' thinking, but this one is a tried-and-failed rabble rouser. It is not even clear that this is what he planned to announce in the first place. There is time still for him to clarify that volunteering means volunteering. Opening up the
paths for people to volunteer is a good thing but it does nothing to
tackle the root cause of the problem - there are not enough paying jobs
for people who need to pay their mortgages or rent, and feed their
families and want to pay their way in the world. Where is the Government
policy to tackle this?
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posted 19 Aug 2010 09:42 by Focus Ireland
The Poor Can't Pay campaign has calculated the impact of the welfare cuts on struggling local economies around the country - and it paints a bleak picture. Last years cuts took €22 million out of the Cork economy in 2010, €12.6m out of the Limerick economy, €12 million from Galway, €3.4 million from Sligo, €9 million from Waterford and €4.5 million from Kilkenny.
To date The Poor Can’t Pay campaign has concentrated
on the poverty and deprivation experienced by people living on welfare and low
incomes. However, we are now warning the Government of the serious knock on
impact cuts are having by reducing spending in local economies nationwide.
To get some idea of the scale of these hits - in Waterford this is equivalent to another closure of an employer the size of Waterford Glass, in Galway is it like cancelling the Arts Festival, in Cork takes more money out of the local economy than canceling the Jazz Festival. We know the damage that this sort of loss meant in Waterford and we can imagine the uproar from local businesses if Cork and Galway were to cancel their festivals. Yet local business organisations remained silent when the income of their customers was slashed last year. We are alerting them this year, that cuts to their poorest customers mean real losses for them too. W hen the poor can’t pay for their meat and their bread, the
butcher and the baker suffer too through loss of sales.The Press Statement related to the Cork economy is attached |
posted 30 Jul 2010 08:35 by Focus Ireland
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updated 30 Jul 2010 08:52 by The Poor Can't Pay
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There are hundreds of reasons why the income of the poor should not be cut to tackle Ireland's crisis - but most of us have come across that crucial moment in the argument where the particular example escapes us - or when we just can't remember that killer fact. But winning those arguments and ensuring that people understand our case is crucial to protecting the most vulnerable in our society. To help activists, campaigning organisations and campaign supporters get the case across, the members of The Poor Can't Pay' coalition have been preparing short summaries of the reasons why specfic payments need to be defended. The documents have been prepared as 'ten reasons why' bullet points which summarise the key issues and key arguments. You can access the first four 'Ten Reasons not to cut...' documents (which cover Jobseekers payments, Childbenefit, Older peoples payments and the Minimum Wage' here.Use them in any way you think is effective, let us know if you have any suggestions to improve them or to cover other issues. |
posted 29 Jun 2010 10:31 by Focus Ireland
Over 1,500 e-mails have now been sent to TDs/Senators since this campaign launched on Monday morning. All TDs/Senator have received at least 1 e-mail and some have received up to 15. Each mail is from a real named person in the TD/Senators own constituency, giving their name and address and looking for a real reply.
We need to keep up the momentum on this - so send on the link to your friends, family and colleagues.
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