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ORGANISERS OF A rally being organised for outside the Dáil next Tuesday are hoping for a large turn-out, and they’re encouraging those taking part to “bring your colourful and imaginative banners and placards”.
Timed to coincide with the anniversary of the massive demonstrations that followed the announcement of the 2008 Emergency Budget, which included both pensioners and students, the protest is being arranged by representative group The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament.
Some of the most controversial measures announced on Tuesday as part of Budget 2014 will impact older people hardest: the lowering of the qualifying threshold for medical cards, the increase in the prescription charge to €2.50 and the scrapping of the bereavement grant.
SIPTU is also lending its support to the protest effort, which takes place outside the gates of the Dáil at 1pm on Tuesday.
According to the chairman of the union’s Retired Staff Countil, Frank Gannon, “Older people have been accused by media commentators of not having been hit by the austerity measures introduced by the current Government.
“The fact is they have been hit by cuts that include those to Home Help care packages, respite care grants, the fuel support scheme, rising drug costs and soaring energy bills.
“The loss of the death grant could drive vulnerable people into the hands of money lenders; increased prescription charges could see those with multiple illnesses having to make choices about what drugs to take and the lowering of the income threshold for medical cards means an estimated 35,000 people will lose their cards.”
Some 15,000 older people and around 10,000 students took part in a rally outside the gates of Leinster House on 22 October 2008.
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Looks like we will need to depend on the grey brigade to voice an opposition to what this government will do to Irish citizens.
Why can’t everyone get off there backsides and march. Young with dole cuts. People that are pissed off with USC property tax water. Basically if your not happy with the government get off the couch
Join the march, you’ll be grey shortly and we all have/had parents/grandparents! Do it for yourself, If not for them!
The turn out in 2008 was orchestrated by FG and Labour that why there won’t be any march this time
While some older people have a valid reason to demonstrate a good few have a cheek to complain when you look at rescources being withdrawn from sick kids and the terminally ill.
Sorry, complaining about €2.50 a month when sick kids are being refused a Medical Card. Some would be better off minding their Grandkids and share the burden rather than moaning !
This isn’t them against us.
Kids become pensioners eventually.
David I will be taking a day off from minding my grandchild to attend as will many of my friends. Don’t know if you have children or not or are you annoyed that your parents (who I hope are alive and well) don’t look after yours.
You know nothing of the situation many grandparents are in and sweeping generalisations are seldom helpful. I have no doubt there are grandparents who are very well off but they are in a minority.
@little Jim at the rate this government are going a lot of sick kids will never make it to pension age.!!!
I do think that the €2.50 per item on prescription is a bit much for the older folk living off the old age pension.
I fully support the pensioners well done to them. My heart breaks for my own parents who both have illnesses which will cost them dearly with the increase of the prescription charge. People should not forget the pensioners worked through all eh recessions paid their taxes when there was no such thing as allowances for not working. They worked for and earned what they are fighting for. I encourage anyone who can to come along and support them on Tuesday!
David, Why not engage your brain before you write something stupid like that?
Are you saying that it’s the older people’s fault that resorces are being withdarawn from sick kid’s and the terminally ill?
They would also be indirectly or directly affected by those cuts as well because they would have grandchildren who are effected by these cuts and also could or would have to also deal with people who are terminnaly ill, so they would not want those cuts either!
It’s ýour pals in Government who devised these cuts and now you want to use the ‘divide and conquer’tactic, which won’t work!.
The elderly, the sick and most people affected by this and all the last 7 Budgets DID NOT CAUSE THE COUNTRY TO BE ON IT’S KNEES, but they are the ones that have to suffer, while the people responsible have escaped untouched!
Theoe responsible, the Politicians, the Bankers, Speculators and Property Developers, have ALL GOT OFF SCOT FREE and we all know why that is.
So David, while I realise that you are a Government defender and also a defender of their austerity budgets, just remember in future to lay the blame at the feet of those responsible and let people who are effected by all the cuts in the budget excercise their democratic right to peacefully protest .
Remember as well that in 2014 their are elections and people will deliver their verdict on this Government then and I assure you that when those elections are over, they will have gotten the message of what we think of all theit broken promises!
No politician, took any pain and that’s a disgrace!
@David, fair play to the old folks for protesting, Irish people like to moan and do nothing about it…..as for your comment about terminally ill kids, have you done anything to support them with their situation? Or are you full of hot air?
i see a government b——-d when i see one a plant to divide people ,these people are vermin
Nosey its capped at 7 euros a week.
I work with vulnerable older people and most of them find it very hard to make ends meet. I regularly visit their homes and often there is little or no food and without exception they all worry about paying their bills. A lot of people on here seem to have fallen for the government spin about pensioners having plenty of money. People on good occupational pensions have earned their entitlements. This is the generation that paid 70% tax in the seventies and are now being taxed again on pensions. Many are now supporting middle aged children who’ve lost jobs .They have every right to protest about what’s going on now – at least they’re prepared to get out and have their say.
More power to them!
Like many others I get my pension and fcuk all else.No free fuel,tv or anything that some of you plonquers are suggesting. I have a travel pass and the nearest bus route is 10 miles away, train about the same.I get around with the aid of a walking stick and pain killers. At one stage in my working life I was paying enough tax to keep 4 of you dossers in comfort and now my rights to a simple life in retirement are being eroded to keep you and your feckless families in Nike runners and Sky TV.
€2.50 a month? You surely mean €2.50 per prescription! It costs my wife the full €25 per month for her heart medicines. We are both on the over 70′s medical card.
Good man Frank, I too am a Grandparent, I have 3 voluntary jobs and know a lot of elderly and am also in an active retirement group. My age group is approaching 65 and my point is there are worse off people in our society who will suffer if we are too greedy with our demands.
Individual people are not necessarily demonstrating for themselves, but for others.
@Morticia, fair play and well said.
Point taken. Admire people who contribute through voluntary effort and done a lot of it myself over the years. On the medical card issue I cannot for the life of me understand how they can remove them from seriously ill children and very sick adults, looks like its a lottery system. Seems our system is totally evil
Morticia, I think you have opened up the conversation a bit more. 1 in every 3 euros of taxation goes to social services – that’s not sustainable. I might be wrong but I think 1/4 of the 20 billion of the department is pension related.
Are you paying a TV license?
Keep it real Ger.
David, that’s a bizzare comment. The elderly have work through more than one recession and have earned every state allowance that they receive. €2.50 might seem small but it will be the difference between some people being able to get all the medication on their prescription or picking and choosing what they need the most. Also, being a grandparent does not equate to being a babysitter on call. If a grandparent chooses to mind their grandkids fair enough it sure isn’t mandatory.
Fair play to the grey brigade. Show them how it’s done.
Well said Michelle
@gerbreen,not only do I pay for the license but I live in an area where we don’t get RTE ! Simple fact is that me and others like me paid for our future when we were young and able to do so and our bargain with the state has been broken by them.And it’s not just pensions, we paid for the electrification of the country and for all those poles and cables that folks are still paying “line rental” and ” meter rental” and so much else of the infrastructure of this country. I often smile with happiness as I drag in the wood and coal for me stove or try to do a bit of painting in between bouts of pain when I think of some poor 20 year old who has to sit around all day wondering what to do with his/her €100 a week having done eff all ever other than being born.
Indeed Morticia … my primary objective as a parent is to give my kids a better life than me but with a good work ethic and respect for society. And I extend that beyond my family. Your generation set the building blocks of mine just as we build for the next. Thats why we must live within our means.
@ Stephen Murphy
oh yeah
they are all twirling their handlbar moustaches in Leinster house
just cooking up another diabolical scheme
The problem is everyone was hit in the Budget. The hardworking person who is subsidizing many of the benefits given by the state.Its great to see the elderly protesting but on this occasion the reality is there is very little room to play around. Finances are tight. I may get a thumbs down for this comment. But we have to live in the real world.None of us like to be hit. The worker has been screwed yet again with more taxes. So my point is that young working families are in the same boat as the elderly.I would agree that some of the cuts were harsh especially the Bereavement allowance. The medical card for many people is essential also. IT HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED THIS WEEK THAT BUS FARES ARE GOING UP AROUND TEN PER CENT SO ONCE AGAIN THE FEE PAYING PASSENGER IS BEING HIT.I raise my hat to the elderly for standing up for themselves. Things have changed a lot since that protest many years ago. The country is in a different situation we were not Bankrupt then Now We are depending on Europe to keep the country running.
You are spot on. But protest is needed. I saw today that the HSE has admitted changes to discretionary medical card criteria, after members of the government have been denying just that. If we knew we were getting the truth it would be a help.
Francis, most countries run a budget deficit most of the time. This imperative to balance the national books is fairytale economics being imposed on us by the neo liberal elite in Europe. They can do this because we handed control of our currency to the ECB when we joined the euro. Unlike Ireland , sovereign countries like the U.S. and U.K do need to borrow their own currencies in the international money markets. Any bonds that those countries do sell to the markets can be bought back at a later stage by their central banks with dollars and sterling which those central banks have the power to create at will. This is exactly what they have been doing in the massive quantitative easing program of the past few years. Neither is the creation of new money inflationary in depressed economies with large scale unemployment as seen with the QE programs which have resulted in little or no generalized inflation. The misery being inflicted on Ireland is a political choice not an economic necessity.
Typo. Countries like the U.S and U.K do not need to borrow their own currency in the money markets.
Ill be there, five of us are going together.
You nearly have enough to do the Haka, outside the Dail?
If I was at home I would be there. How many cuts, USC. 1% levy pension? Dirt tax, property tax. Water tax.phone allowance gone. Medical cards gone. Income tax.how much more can they take. Never touched themselves good memory.
ha ha ha
the eldery have took the hit again all the have left is free travel which will propably go next budget;phone allowance gone charge for medicne now 2.50per item;fg and labour hang your heads in shame but you cant your hard necks wont allow you to;
Fuel allowance … tv license … plus 230 in the paw every week. Senior citizens are still well looked after. Most still have medical cards it’s fair to say?
These are the same pensioners who have worked for 45 years (some even longer!) And paid their taxes, contributed to the economy through their buying of goods that are taxed and suppored their growing families, getting their 230 “in their paw”?
As opposed to what? They are entitled to a decent retirement, not having to make a choice between heating or eating.
Think before you deride them, you may be a pensioner yourself someday.
This generation of pensioners are the luckiest. Simple demographics means that most of us of working age will not have the resources to retire as well and as early as this generation has. And we’ll have paid taxes all our lives too.
Siobhan, I only pointed out that senior citizens are well looked after. 12k into the hand is decent plus a package. If I live to pension age, there’s no way I will get a similar package as it would be unfair on the next generation whose taxes will be considerably higher to support that.
Well said Colin.
@ Siobhan Arnold
they worked for 45 years and they paid their taxes
and they voted
for the same people we all voted for
and now they want to act like they didn’t
you get what you vote for :)
don’t like the way things are ?
vote for somebody else
Fair play to the pensioners leading they way, they’ll show us how it’s done. Say what you like about them they organise & mobilise. Young people will piss, whinge, bitch & moan & stay sat on their arses by & large. Let the elderly have tier free travel, why do some begrudge them so? I see legions of junkie degenerates who have contributed Fukk all with passes every day. I don’t see budget 2013 bothering them anymore than budget 2012 did or any more than budget 2014 will.
How many quangos have been disbanded by this government?
Nothing to brag about, I’d say and more created
The pensioners obviously believe that the ‘Celtic Tiger’ is still alive and living in Abu Dhabi.
They’ll be on the earliest free buses and trains, but will fall asleep and miss the stop
Lay off our folk, they deserve every thing they get and more,lm no where near old age yet but l would like to think myself and all other young people have more respect for them then to treat them like shit.If you are a young person and you are that stuck for money you could cut grass,clean windows.A younger person will allways have a way of making fifty euro,may not allways the right way but it can be done. A man of eighty can hardley get up a ladder.Think about it your 80 years of age cold,tired, afraid,sometimes hungry and alone. Not nice is it. Give them a break,,,,
So dole payment cut to under 26 is okay? Nice sentiment but it needs to be costed and paid for.
No its not ok but get real here,if you as a 20 odd year old man are realy that stuck for 50 euro you can get it somehow.No you should not be cut. There should be a decent job there for you if you want it, an old person will never have that option.
Old people work too Sharon.
Also… Who pays for your fantasy utopia where pensioners get everything?
Who pays for it with the population getting older?
Realy Joey just how many 80 year olds do you know working in I.t or as fire men,teachers,doctors,forklift drivers,,ect. The only older people l know that are working are lolly pop men/women and that an hour or two a day.All these benifits should be means tested at a decent rate not just handed out to any one because they come of a certain age.
under 26 can move home
over 26 have kids and need the money
Things have changed!! Yes they have for the majority of us FOOLS!! Nothing has changed for the crew up in the Dáil… Nothing has changed for the boys in the banks.. Stephen use the toilets and wash your hands…
That’s the root of all the problems. Still no accountability in banking sector. Still no enquiry. Noonan has failed miserably in dealing with them. Payback perhaps for writing off Garretts debt all those years ago.
I do feel sorry for loads of them that will be badly effected by this but here is the unfortunate reality in relation to our pensioners.
They are the ones who voted Bertie and his boys in. Then they wanted change. So…..
They are the ones that votes Edna’s circus road show in. Now they will demand more change. So…
They will now more than likely vote Bertie’s boy micheal martin back in after this.
If they want a fairer society please look beyond the 2 big boys ( soon to be former big boss) in Ireland and look for a real alternative.
You reap what you sow, so, stop planting gombeens in the Dail because all you will reap is this sort of cr@p.
Retrospect is a fine thing. Should we be punished in the future for what Labour have become today.
You can only choose from what is on offer, the only other option is not to vote.
What would you have done?
You cannot say ‘they are the ones’, how do you know how they voted, and what options did they have. WE, are the ones voting now, and we should support them not only by attending, but by putting pressure on the parties NOW to ensure a better system in the future. My elderly neighbors who had pensions (which went into receivership) have practically nothing now, their only hope is a one way ticket to Turkey to stay warm, fine gratitude for years of paying taxes in Ireland.
Therefore we will reap what we sow, and hopefully learn from history..
€500 Million Local Property Tax on every Irish Family Home every year (young & old)
Fine Gael and Labour are responsible for this.
If you can’t make the march …. march with your wallet and vote with your wallet.
Clawback the odious and offensive €500 Million Local Property Tax on every Irish Family …
- “Give up your ol’ bins” – get a bin partner, preferably one with an exemption : Save €360
- “Give up the smokes” – it wont kill you but it will kill the taxman : €2500
- “Give up your high street shopping” : free parking out of town : Save €150
- “Give up your Daft Car Tax” : only when you need it : Save €250
- “Give up the new cars” : No VRT on used cars : Save daft €6000 : “Not Green Jersey anyway!”
- “Give up Med1 lapses” : submit without fail. Save €250
- “Give up 1 fill of oil” : Insulate your house – save €500
- “Give up the water charges” : sink your own well – see youtube
- Give up your Direct Debit for the LPT” : write ‘em a ‘cheque in the post’ every month.
“Dont get angry with the taxman (Fine Gael and Labour), get even.
—————————————————
http://www.facebook.com/LocalPropertyTax
O yes because colorful sign’s will make this tramp government stop rapeing us.
the government didn’t just wander into leinster house
they were voted in
forget the protests and the signs
the only way to change things is vote for the right people
*colourful **signs ***raping
*colourful
It is if you use American English otherwise it’s it’s colourful using British English
Why the name calling john? Do you feel better for it?
No problem with the raping then?
he is a bully
Accept the budget ,most of us have, and get on with it
Pensioners hit again. A disgraceful budget. Many have put money away to supplement the OAP only to be crucified
With a 41 per cent tax on savings. I will join the demo on Tuesday outside the sail. I’m truly fed up. For us on
The OAP plus a few modest savings doesn’t make us rich pensioners.
Anita, non-retired people have to pay 4% PRSI on top of the 41%.
@ Anita OGalligan
old people, gay people, black people
all of those i mention above want to be treated like the rest of us in pubs restaurants etc
but come budget time ,,, oh you can’t cut this person or that person
if they are irish they will face cuts in an irish budget
Tax those flat caps
At least they have the balls to stand up and be counted, instead of just bitching and moaning, fair play to them.
@ Angela Halpin
they will stand up
be counted
be laughed at
be spoken down to by vincent browne (without even knowing it)
and be ignored
oh yeah fair play to them :)
Everyone has to stand up together young & old. Every time the government screws ALL of us we start turning on ourselves. Pensioners deserve the cuts, the unemployed deserve the cuts, the sick & dying deserve the medical cards taken off them. Well enough is enough none of these people deserve to pay for the crap we’re in today. The people who deceived the country ( bankers, politicians & developers) are the one’s who should be made pay for the mistakes THEY made. Everyone stand together start being proud to be Irish again & take back OUR country for ourselves not the corrupt bankers & politicians.
You have a good deal in this country. What really is obscene is this sense of entitlement
I smell wee
@Stephen – you should change your underware then
All the divided interest groups fight for the scraps at the table.
The self anointed “entitlements” grow exponentially.
Retirement pension was originally to sustain a citizen for 2 years after work when they would die.
Now the tax payer has to pay for, and the state borrow for, an average of 12.5 years retirement life which is completely unsustainable.
There is no word for retirement in Japan – they live much longer and are much healthier and continuing to work is a major factor according to researchers.
Elderly should have not mortgage, no childhood costs. Their financial requirements are low. If they want a higher income then, with good health, continue to work, or work part time.
Donnacha just what do you propose a 75 year old could work at,secondy what happened to all the tax and prsi they paid for the 50 years of their working life,,
A 75 year old, if in good health, could work at what they have 50 years of expertise in – maybe in a less physically labourious role such as teaching and mentoring new apprentices in their area of expertise.
All the tax and PRSI was and is used to fund the “entitlements” of other citizens as demanded and granted by politicians in return for votes at elections. The remainder is borrowed for future generations to pay back with interest. Look at our national budget balance sheet – social welfare (sorry it’s now called social protection) is the most expensive department.
If it could be as black and white as you paint it the country would be a better place but you and l know it will never happen.75 year olds teaching younger people, for what.There is some but not enough jobs out there for these people and by the time the country gets back on the right road all the training will be out dated anyway.
Cant wait till im a pensioner to get all these things free
it is a wonderful tribute to the Propaganda machine of the government that people argue about cuts to pensioners – . It was not the pensioners that took down this country .
This idea was floated before the budget [ ie to cut pensioners allowances etc ]] by a Billionaire – O’Leary . Maybe they should also march on Ryan – Air .
If they come out in numbers and force a repeal on any cuts, someone else picks up the tab. That’s the reality. I see many non pensioners here criticising cuts but none volunteering to take the pain for them. Be careful what you wish for…
I see many non pensioners here criticising cuts but none volunteering to take the pain for them”
why should anyone be taking the pain for failed banks and ” developers ” . These people gambled and lost – and now people argue about who should pay for the bankers . Divide and Conquer I alive and well .
Jim, regardless of the banks we’d be borrowing to keep the lights on. Everyone has to take their share…
@ O’Reilly
”come out in numbers and force a repeal ? ”
are you joking ?
Can’t stop laughing at that photo!
What time ?
And so right they should. The message has got to be got across and forcefully that the population of middle and lower income Ireland is not an ATM for the likes of the undemocratic EMC (Economic Management Council). This country has transformed into a bean counters paradise with layer upon layer of multiple taxes, levies and charges being placed upon the shoulders of those least able to bear such burdens. The heart has been squeezed out of the domestic economy by an administration which has ensured that the ordinary man in the street has little if any discretionary income left to spend. We are about to see the TROIKA to the airport and exit the bail out at years end and then what? With an almost dead domestic economy how do we grow our way out of our crippling debt load? Dave McWilliams penned a good article recently about e.g. the almost ghost town which Dunlaoigre has become with so many shops boarded up. This administration has been slowly killing the domestic goose by sucking its life blood (discretionary income) and are indeed delusional with their expectations that as soon as the TROIKA have gone and we exit the bail out that the emaciated domestic golden goose will drop the golden egg. It just does not make one ounce of logical sense for, on the one hand, the administration to tell us that improved domestic economic activity will solve our national debt and unemployment problems while on the other hand sucking the very lubricant which the domestic economy needs to survive and thrive i.e. discretionary spending right out of it. Do we need protests about this? You better believe we do. Well done to those who marched before. Lets hope that the turnout this time is at least as big if not bigger.
Pensioners, where not all ways Pensioners, They where young people at one time.
paying their taxes & prsi,for 40 years in some cases,Some of us had to leave our Country to get a living, and even send money Home to help our Mothers/Fathers/ Sisters/ Brothers, Who where living in disgraceful Conditions with a pittance to live on.They could at least look after them in their old age, after doing their bit for their Country. Leave them with some Dignity.
Maby all the young people (over25s) should get up and march ,and show what your made of, and not just sit around doing nothing until it is to late.
You will all be old some that’s for sure.
So do it how it is your furture.:)
All out with the grey army. This effects all of us ordinary folk.
have your say