Budget a recipe for exploitation and pain says Tynan

Workers Party Councillor Ted Tynan has said that Tuesday's Budget is a recipe for exploitation and pain which is completely loaded in favour of the wealthy and contemptuous of the young, the old and the vulnerable.

Cllr. Tynan said that the cuts in the budget were some of the meanest yet and would heap misery on hardship for families and those whose needs were greatest.  He said the 66% increase in  prescription charges for medical card holders, the scrapping of the free telephone allowance for the elderly and of the once-off bereavement grant were amongst the most vicious cuts but he felt that many more hidden cuts would emerge over the next few days.

“This is far from being a jobs budget” said Cllr Tynan, “in fact the budget is devoid of a job creation strategy.  Instead the coalition’s plan is to starve the unemployed and particularly the young into emigrating or taking up underpaid and grossly exploitative work under the worst possible terms and conditions.  In this centenary year of the 1913 Lockout employers are rubbing their hands together with glee at the prospect of cowed workers and a silenced trade union movement”

Councillor Tynan concluded by singling out the Labour Party for a stinging rebuke. “Yesterday the Labour Party threw its own 2011 election manifesto into the bonfire. Gone is the commitment to fairness, gone is their promise of a universal insurance-based health system and gone is their last shred of credibility.  If they have any remaining self-respect then they too should depart the scene sooner rather than later”, said Cllr. Tynan.

Primary school class sizes already too high

Councillor Ted Tynan has said that government cuts which will mean a further increase in the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools are a direct attack on children’s futures which will affect them for the rest of their lives.

The Mayfield based Workers' Party councillor spoke after attending a public meeting called by teacher and parent representatives at primary level in Cork this week.   There he pledged strong support for the fight against the proposed increase in class sizes due to forthcoming budget cuts.

“The idea of increasing class sizes is outrageous”, said Cllr. Tynan. “We already have the 2nd highest primary class sizes in Europe. We are 2nd only to the UK. At present 120,000 Irish primary school children are in classes of 30 pupils or more. For any government to propose making it higher is an obscenity”.

“It has been proven by numerous studies that the higher the class sizes the less individual attention children can receive. This has severe implications for children with special needs - both academic and emotional needs - particularly when one considers that schools in recent years have lost a range of teachers including traveller teachers, English language teachers, special class teachers, enhanced disadvantaged staffing as well as a 10% cut in Resource hours”.

Cllr. Tynan said that debate on the budget was being reduced to a phoney battle between Fine Gael and Labour over how cuts were going to be implemented. “There is a more important issue here”, he said, “it is whether the demands of the banking elites and the illusion of economic stability are more important than our children’s futures.  The decisions made today will affect this country in decades to come and more importantly will decide whether some children are left behind permanently due to the demands of government, big business and the EU”.

“For over half a decade now budgets have been callously slashed and the needs of  ordinary people swept aside to bail out the banking and capital elites. It is time to shout Stop and talk about human beings instead of billions, otherwise we are storing up real problems and will not be forgiven by future generations for the damage done today”, said Councillor Tynan.