Won’t this simply mean that those more devious serial single parents will conspire to become pregnant as their youngest cash cow approaches their seventh birthday?

If their children are in school, then surely they can able to have a part time job at least?

I wonder how many of those upset here were naive enough to vote for Fine Gael or Labour, believing their um ’5 Point Plan’. How many here voted ‘Yes For Lisbon, Yes For Jobs” With all due respect, what does a rant on TheJournal achieve? Sit back and enjoy the ride, you voted for it

There are Single parents and there are Lone parents, don’t tar everyone with your same narrow brush.

So explain where the money comes from please….

Taxing the people who can most afford to pay. Talking essential profitable companies into state ownership for the common good, creating a state owned and funded energy company encompassing oil and gas reserves (oil and gas on a very small scale at first but work at it like any other business and it could grow over the years). Encourage people to actively take part in their communities without fear of losing their social benefits(Would save on council spending)…basically look at society as a whole and focus on creating a just and fair society. Ridding it of greed and the sponges like those who pick up massive salaries and profits from other people’s work.. Not those who cannot find work and are unable to pay their bills and every now and time ‘sneak’ a little work in so that they might buy their child a pair of shoes or so they can affor to go to an interview for a job even !! Oh and if you think what I’ve said above cannot be done, think again. The Euro is dead…the punt never died it was culled…time to revive it and revive our domestic internal economy and give the creation of society the priority…and not give the creation of private wealth and greed the freedom to destroy it.

There’s an answer for you Jim. And that’s the kind of country I want to live in and bring my kids up in. Just beautiful. Comment of the week.

Cutting spending rather than increasing tax will do less damage to the economy. Also, governments that follow this policy are more likely to be returned to office in subsequent elections.
http://www.economist.com/node/17627068

“talking profitable companies into state ownership”
Priceless!
“dear Google, would you like be state owned?”
You think many industries/companies are going to stick around, or do you think Ireland is going to be an attractive place to do business once the state starts “talking” to business that way?
Fact remains that as you raise taxes you stifle growth, and regardless of how you feel about, it that’s just the way it is.

Look around you, smell the coffee, this has to get worse. If we don’t starting making deep cuts soon (that should have been made years ago), our grandchildren are going to speaking Cantonese, and labouring for 50c a week. The longer we leave it the worse it gets

@ Jim Brady.
Read Ceiteach’s post again. Incorrectly quoting him with an omission is either careless or dishonest on your part.

He didn’t advocate blanket raising of tax either. He said taxing those that can afford to pay.

You look around you too Jim. Wouldn’t cooperation be better than every man for himself? It’s no more scarier than the way things seem to be going.

..from the same coffers that pay single unemployed people.

@ Ceiteach Mac Giollagain

Yes, that’s the country I want to live in, good post!

But note, the economic system itself is a key part of the system of inequality & at present inherently favours the financial oligarchy.

It needs to be changed & it can be. A currency +issuing+ authority (of punt nua, say) has no need to borrow anything to spend for public purpose. There are constraints. It must balance spending – money creation – on the one hand, with taxation – money extinguishing – on the other, accordingly to regulate inflation. But the level of public ‘defecit’ itself can fluctuate without either repayment or interest requirement. Near full employment is possible with this system.

An example of spending this way for public purpose, under recession, would be the provision of a (near minimum wage) job for every unemployed person desiring work. These workers’ spending creates demand for goods & services, thus ‘stimulating’ the private sector economy, which will then be able to offer (higher paying) jobs to those in the public ‘Job Guarantee’ scheme. Note that what Job Guarantee workers actually do is less important than their ability to earn & spend in the economy. They should obviously not replace other workers, rather perform work to the benefit of society & community that would otherwise not be funded. Economies are naturally cyclical. Such a scheme would greatly reduce the damaging effects of periods of private sector downturn & recession. No public/government debt or interest obligation need exist. (You can see why the banks & their economists don’t like this – debt & debt servitude is their core ‘business’.)

These ideas & full explanation of the economics thinking behind them can be found at the blogs of Prof Bill Mitchell (& others). It should be noted that these economists correctly forecasted the financial crash some years in advance & had stated their sound methodolgy & understanding for doing so.

Bill Mitchell’s blog is here:

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/

These policies are entirely possible to implement & offer the appropriate economic system to underpin a vastly fairer & more stable society.

3?? 6 or 7.. get real

A lot of negative talk about single mums… every kid has a dad who is also responsible for the childs welfare.

JBB’ what the government need to do is put a system in place so dead beat dads can be found and made to accept their half of the responsibility. Penalising already disadvantaged children, because make no mistake it IS the kids who ultimately suffer, makes no sense and before you tar all single mothers with the same brush take a long look at the census figures on how many are actually working part time anyway because you cannot raise a family and pay bills on the government allowance!

Labour are simply being pragmatic. I’m delighted that Joan Burton and Ruairi Quinn are in two of the biggest spending departments as they can’t be in the same level of denial and they can’t maintain the same level of crazy populism. We can no longer afford a high spending welfare state. Bertie, Charlie McCreevey and Brian Cowen gave away too much in their budgets so now some of that has to be taken away.

Cutting all student grants for postgrad courses doesnt sit well with me. If my suitation presented ifself in 2012, there only would be 1 child going to college; me. Other familles wouldnt have that choice, not that it should be one in the first place. Its fine for someone in the cities, but this will kill rural areas and increase dependancy on the state.

What a bright idea. Pay the people who have been voted in to sort out this country the same as the lowest paid. I’m sure that would attract the best and the brighest to the most important(and among the most difficult) positions in the state. The I.M.F would be out by the end of the week with you in charge I say.

In fairness, paying top dollar has nt exactly attracted the brightest and most capable either…

Fair point, but in my opinion that is because the irish people voted for populist polticians rather than those who could run the country most effectively. That is a diferent issue, my point is that it is illogical to think that cutting politicians wages will help the country in anyway

What is an FOI request ? Please !

Freedom of information Eileen. About 6 or 7 euro last time I checked.

Thanks Reada .

I’m headin to Canada myself. :)

I’m in Canada 2 years… Every year hoping things will improve at home

It is not fiction… Young 17, 18 and 19 year old girls want kids to get a free house/apartment, single parent allowance and childrens allowance and then move their partner in. Its going on all over the place. Open your eyes. Yes, its a rather crude, simplistic and also general way of putting it but that is what’s happening. If anyone tries to deny that this is not what’s going on is ignorant or burying their heads in the sand.

They didn’t fool everyone, plenty of people were screaming to stop the madness, and what did Bertie say? something along the lines of ” the economy is fine, anyone who says otherwise should go kill themselves”.

@Ceiteach Mac Giollagáin
The was supposed to be a reply to your comment.

Paul agree totally. Really we need a bunch of genuine people to look at the situation and actually change the whole system but how can this come about? How do you get people to care about each other and themselves after all the separation and division that has been manufactured through terrible government direction and the media influence. I started a college course in September and have found though the announcement of the protest called by the USI the amount of apathy and pure laziness even amongst the students, the absolute lack of empathy for their fellow students and people in general is amazing! Really the only answer is proper education, creating a more socially aware population. But how can you do that when the politicians hold that power?! I just don’t know? Are people not suffering enough already? The problem will get far worse though with more cuts to social funding and education. Someone above says further tax increases will damage the economy this is absolute rubbish if that money from tax was passed on to the people that have not it would actually increase spending in the domestic economy, creating demand and therefore the need for more jobs!! I didn’t even read the economist link and no doubt it says that increasing taxes make the sun the moon and the stars fall but get real we all have minds and do you really need a degree in economics to know that people who hold onto capital are of no use to the economy and most of their capital is gained by killing the general economy..have to go and cook some beans on toast here so I’ll leave it at that for now. We need a good domestic economy and build from that.

No you’re not naive. It’s called cooperation and the way most civilisations survive. We’re at a crossroads and at last cooperative socialism isn’t a dirty word anymore. At last!

You’re being an optimist, naive is a bit harsh. Have to say though, I haven’t known most of my neighbours for well over ten years, used to be that everyone knew everyone and everybody chipped in….. those days are gone in a lot of places but I’m sure community spirit is still there elsewhere.

Yes, Eileen.

Well all we can do is TRY !

“it wouldn’t attract anyone, no one would want the job” that is sort of my point. I get that it would give certain people satisfaction but we need perspective on this issue. The public voted in the government..the majority believes that they are the best people for the job and it is too early to judge their actions.

How about we revisit the Croke Park Agreement. Cut former T.D’s and ministers pensions. But then again turkeys do not vote for Christmas

I agree with both those points.