The political and the human-reflections on demotion of John

Tonight is a difficult one for John McGuinness TD, a political adversary in our constituency who has not been reappointed to a Junior Ministry by Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD. On a human level this is a difficult time for John, his wife Margaret and all the McGuinness family, including my council colleague and opponent in the forthcoming local elections, Andrew. It is never easy to lose a position which you feel you have secured on merit, and one in which you have worked hard and in which you feel you have done well.

It is also a frustrating time for the McGuinness half of the Fianna Fáil team in Kilkenny who thought that by succeeding in topping the poll in 2007, and in the process, helping to deliver three seats out of five that enough had been done to secure the first step on the ministerial ladder for a politician who is, without a shadow of a doubt, bright and articulate. Indeed the McGuinness lieutenant on the Borough Council, Cllr. Joe Reidy tonight said on local radio that the step to a senior ministry was one they thought would happen sooner rather than later. Those of us of all political persuasions hoped that a senior ministry would come to Kilkenny sooner rather than later, as it is now twenty seven years since we had that honour and all it brings with it.

On a political level however, I have had my differences with John McGuinness. I believe his attacks on public servants in last year's Sunday Independent interview were wrong and unfair, but as the 'pension levy' or public service tax as it should be called has proven, many in his own party agree, including the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach.

John believes in his right to speak out, but it is the ability to attack Government decisions which your party made and which you walked through the Dáil lobbies to vote for, which I and a huge number of the voters I am meeting on the doorstep find hardest to take.

When John announced on KCLR local radio on the morning of the latest budget that the Government 'had made a bags of the last budget', he failed to mention that he had voted for it and also robustly defended it in the local and national media.

John was defiant tonight on national television stating that he had 'not been elected to the Dáil to leave his brain outside the door'. With this we all agree, but we will continue to demand that he and every Fianna Fáil TD in Carlow/Kilkenny and in the country accept their responsibility for and are held accountable for things like axing the Christmas bonus for pensioners and social welfare recipients, increasing class sizes, hatcheting services in hospitals and health clinics, abandoning the Fair Deal for those in nursing homes etc. etc. etc. and of course standing over policies which have ended up with hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs.

If we didn't I'm sure John would be disappointed that we, like him, didn't use our brains and speak out to defend the weakest in our society who are being made pay for the sins of the free-market nonsense which his party has made such a boast of championing.

Reflections on a crazy week- Let's fight to make it different

Tonight I watched Brian Lenihan who's supposed to know what's going on in our country and economy and Eamon Gilmore on the Week in Politics programme and I saw why the people I've met on the street are really connecting with the Labour Party and its leader. Putting it simply, Eamon wiped the floor with Lenihan in a calm, rational and yet really passionate way. In that he has been joined by Joan Burton, who's now coming across as the only really knowledgeable voice on the economic front. It took her questioning to discover during the week that the pension levy would be tax deductible and therefore would bring in far less than the Government pretended.

Put simply this has been a week which typifies all that is rotten about this Government. The politics of the soft touch has seen people like myself and others on far lower rates of pay than mine scapegoated by this Government.

Of course our local Junior Minister John McGuinness started the softening up process months ago with his mean-spirited attack on public servants. The media has fallen for this spin hook, line and sinker, making it so easy to attack us this week. The unfairness of it all was brilliantly described by SIPTU's Jack O' Connor on Wednesday when he said that a public servant on €40,000 would now pay an extra 7% of their salary effectively in tax, while a self-employed hospital consultant in a private hospital would pay an extra 2% on a salary of €250,000 a year. Worse still the property developers and the bankers who brought us to this mess get off scot-free.

I for one hope that my colleagues across the public service now revolt. We don't mind paying our share in a difficult situation but let's see others bear the pain also.

For now it's time for us to organise to get this shower out. This month Labour are asking you to get involved. If you're in Kilkenny please contact me to join the Labour Party and get involved. If you're anywhere else click here to sign up. The time for talking and criticising is over-the time for action is now and you can play your part.

Bí linn agus is féidir linn

Nationalising the banks comrades- Sure tis a great thing altogether now!

In the bad old days the biggest insult you could throw at the Labour Party was that they wanted to 'Nationalise the Banks'. The implication was that the horrible old socialists would rob all your money and take it out of your life savings account and throw it all away on nasty things like school classrooms and hospital beds.

Now take a look at the smiling man here and reflect! The face of 'Ireland Inc.', the epitome of all that was great in Irish life in the Celtic Tiger period was Mr. Fitzpatrick, when all of us who warned that our ten-year party was based on what David McWilliams called the greatest pyramid selling scheme in the history of capitalism were dismissed as pessimists who were 'talking down the economy'. And what was he up to all along-why feathering his own nest of course, along with a whole lot of other chancers. And what must we do now? Well Cowen and Lenihan first ask us to shell out a fortune to bail out the nice lads at Anglo, and then, sure we might as well buy it altogether sure!

Ten years ago you'd have been sent off to the Celtic Tiger gulag for unsound and unpatriotic people for suggesting nationalising anything-'give it to Michael O' leary-he'll show you how to do it' was the refrain. Remember now when Labour opposed the sell-off of Trustee Savings Bank from the state: 'Sure what would the state be doing running a bank?!!', the sneering fatcats chortled. Well how's about to put manners on a few people and to have a bit of financial ethics around the place as an answer?

Now is the time for this Government to get off its complacent backside and to engage in a real public debate about where we go next. I believe that what my party is proposing is the way to go. Let's stimulate the economy just as Obama and Brown are doing. Let's get building and creating, and if we have to borrow to give people hope and dignity back, let's do so. Staying stuck in the same old Thatcherite slash and burn policies of the 80's will plunge us deeper into darkness and will set our recovery back year.

Who do you trust more on this choice- Obama, Brown and Gilmore or Cowen, Lenihan and indeed Kenny?

Budget Fun and Games

It's just like the good old Frank Hall days- the Minister for ruin comes in and tells us that they're all taking a 10% pay cut. I wouldn't mind taking a drop of 10% if I was on a quarter of a milliion a year. Now we're getting it though 2.5% increase in education and then a rise of €7 in pension payment. A fuel allowance incerase to a miserable €20 per week and for an extra 2 weeks-so much for tackling fuel poverty.

An end to the over 70's automatic medical card and cuts in entitlements to childrens allowance. On third level fees we'll wait for Batty Batt's report before they reintroduce fees!! Yet another focussed review of public service staffing.

A reduction in the number opf army barracks- I hope Kilkenny is not one. An end to decentralisation for Kilkenny I'd guess- a review in 2011! Three years away. So much for Charlie McCreevy's balloney in the chamber a few years ago.

Voluntary redundancy in the HSE- I'll bet it won't affect Brendan Drumm's cronies in senior management who got huge bonuses this year for doing very little.

Now for the green bit- a scheme to make houses warmer-to be welcomed for sure but how far will €20 m go? A carbon budget whatever that is form Gormless tomorrow. Won't hold our breath that that will have much exciting in it.

Now the real meat-taxes!

1% on all of us up to €100 k and 2% beyond that. An increase in VAT to 211/2%- now that will hit all lower income people disproportionately.

Air travel tax of a tenner-another five hours of free press coverage for Michael O' Leary's rantings coming up. 50 cent extra on the fags.

Mortgage interest relief up 5% for first time buyers-welcome for them and no harm to FF's building buddies either. No talk of measures to save young couples from the banks though.

Stamp duty on commercial property down from 9% to 6%-WHY??? Tax incentive to promote cycling to work and punishment for provision of car-park places. Bet that won't impact on the Leinster House car-park.

Local Government-€200 charge on all holiday houses and second houses for local Govt. About time! Is this the reintroducation of property tax or rates by stealth?

Agus ag deireadh-"Is ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine!". What a joke-not a mention of making the muti-millionaire off-shore billionaires behave like patriots and pay their tax to their own country. How ironic that Lenihan calls for a call to patriotic duty and abuses the memory of the Blasket Islanders in the process.

Watching Alan Kelly reacting for Labour. Nothing on Broadband- spot on!

50 cent on bottle of wine. Not sure about that one as all my friends will know!!

Increase in tax bands pathetic. €250 million for school buildings-will it be transparent or politically controlled and leaked on a drip-feed as Hanifin did?

Reaction from Vincent de Paul says it all-3% increase in pensions- increase in VAT as I said earlier on will hit the poorest hardest.

The real Michael Noonan is back-how did the FG handlers manage to destroy him when he became leader? Spot on on nursing home costs of additional €12,000 for those in nursing homes and real impact of removal of medical card over 70.

Labour's Reaction

Here's Eamon Gilmore's reaction-captures much of my own anger:

This is a budget that mercilessly targeted middle-income families, protected the interests of the super-wealthy and failed to take any significant steps to protect the poor and the vulnerable in the face of the worst recession facing this country for decades. Despite the fact that we are seeing the most serious increase in the numbers out of work ever recorded, there was not a single initiative in the budget to reverse the trend of job losses or to put people back into work or into education or training. The people who will suffer most as a result of this budget are typically the nurse, the teacher, the office manager, the skilled tradesman, the small builder: people struggling to make ends meet, to pay the mortgage each month, to cover the cost of childcare or sending a child to university, to meet the cost of drugs for a sick child. These families will pay more in tax and will have to pay more for a range of public services – and the full extent of these additional charges will only become clear over the next few days. The Social Welfare package is only about half that announced in last year’s budget and it is clear that those at the bottom will fall even further behind. While inflicting the maximum possible pain on middle income, working families, Mr. Lenihan has done little or nothing to ensure that the super wealthy, who have made vast fortunes over the past decade, the make the contribution they should to economic recover.

Back to the action
Richard Bruton is right-not a thing for reducing class sizes.

Here comes Joan Burton-how right she is-'Nightmare on Merrion Street'. Right too that it's an old-fashioned Haughey budget.

Nothing to get people back to work or retraining. Into the bonfire goes Social Justice-nothing for childcare for young parents-cutting ot back slowly but surely. No pre-school education left behind after the boom.

Minister won't feel the pain of ordinary working people-too right. Impact of medical card cuts-hospital charge up from €66 to €100.

€2 increase for fuel-the price of a box of firelighters! €16 for a bag of coal and only €20 in total. Well done Joan.

"The fundamentals of our economy are strong!".

She remembers it right and we are fed up of this Government taking no responsibility for the ,ess we are in. We know that it can't be good enough to say that the International crisis is at fault for the mess while Fianna Fáil were totally reponsible for the boom.