Budget 'an affront to the notion of equality' - IFN

The Irish Feminist Network (IFN) has condemned the measures contained in the Social Welfare Bill 2011 which they say amount to an attack on women and children.

Said IFN co-ordinator Alison Spillane, “While we welcome the Minister’s decision to remove the sections relating to cuts and changes to the Disability Allowance, this Bill still contains a number of extremely regressive measures which will make life even more difficult for thousands of people and serve to decrease domestic demand and stifle the economy further.

“The changes to the One-Parent Family Payment, the reductions in Child Benefit for large families, the withdrawal of the multiple births grant, and the extension of means testing to HSE home helpers amount to a vicious assault on women and children, particularly those who are less well-off.

“We call on all TDs to take a stand for women and children and vote against the Social Welfare Bill 2011 in the Dáil today.”

Spillane also criticised the decision to cut funding to the National Women’s Council by 35%, saying “women’s groups throughout the country will be disproportionately affected, even though the resultant savings will have virtually no impact on the deficit.”

She continued: “To be honest, given that the government is 86% male it really is no surprise that the budget they have presented us with is utterly ignorant of the hardship thousands of families were already faced with. This is before these new and draconian measures which will push families further into poverty. The 35% cut to NWCI funding, the attacks on lone parents, large families, and the cuts to the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance illustrate that this budget is fundamentally anti-women and anti-children. As Barnardos highlighted in its pre-budget submission over 90,000 children in Ireland already live in consistent poverty, with many more at risk.

Research has shown that one parent families, 98% of which are made up of single mothers, were the group most negatively affected by last year’s budget, losing almost 5% of their annual income. As it stands 65% of the country’s poorest children live in one-parent families and Fine Gael and Labour are now following in the footsteps of their predecessor with a range of measures targeted specifically at lone parents. This is in the context of a study published today which found that single mothers are the most lonely and socially isolated of all family groups – the government is failing these women and their children.

“The government had real choices in this budget. For example, introducing a third band of income tax on incomes over €100,000 could raise €760 million for the Exchequer and a temporary levy on corporate profits could yield nearly €900 million. Instead, they have chosen to focus on consumption taxes, such as the VAT increase, which are the most regressive form of taxation and will disproportionately impact on low-income groups. This budget is an affront to the notion of equality.”