Cllr. Ted Tynan

The Workers’ Party have described today’s budget as being as bad any presented by Michael Noonan at the height of the economic crisis.

Workers’ Party councillor Ted Tynan said that the budget was shocking in the extent of its focus on handouts and tax loopholes for those with wealth while at the same time increasing the state pension and other social welfare rates by a paltry €5 a week

“It beggars belief”, said Cllr. Tynan, “that Michael Noonan can keep a straight face while on the one hand giving a paltry €5 to pensioners a week while on the other handing huge sums of money to property owners and developers in a raft of measures that will only serve to inflate the cost of housing”.

The Workers’ Party councillor described the budget as cruel and punitive towards the marginalised. “This was a Fine Gael budget through and through and the only input of Fianna Fáil and the Independents is to ensure it gets passed through the Dáil.  Any criticism they make of it is null and void unless they vote against it”.

“This is an austerity budget for the working class and a giveaway budget for the wealthy – nothing could be clearer. Just when we thought the government could sink no lower it has plunged the depths with this budget”, said Cllr. Tynan.