As much as I have sent emails to the Labour leader, expressing my disgust. I ‘ll be wasting my time, till the Revolution begins and I take part!

The Road Safety Authority (A Quango set up in 2006) had €22 million sitting in its account at the start of this year.
And Burton cuts respite care to save €26 million. Makes sense.

Abolish it. If we’re sending everything back to 2006 levels (according to Moan Burton) then get rid of it as it wasn’t around then.

Road Safety Authority (RSA) 2011 End of Year report.

CEO – €164,370 – Noel Brett. Former HSE, joined dept of health in 1999

From Jan 2011 to Sept 2011
Chairman – € 8,868 – Gay Byrne (yes that Gay Bryne)
Board Members
– € 5,701 – Aine Cornally – Career Banker with Bank Of Ireland, she defo needs the money
– € 5,701 – Myra Garrett of William Fry solicitors – guess she needs the money
And 6 more…
From 14th Sept to Dec 2011 (there were two board meetings in this period. That’s TWO! and here’s what was paid)
– € 2,399 – Eddie Rock – Former Assistant Garda Commissioner, bless his wee soul he needs the money too.
– € 2,399 – Ronan Melvin – Financial Controller for an Irish branch of an international construction company (Balfour Beatty)
– € 2,399 – Dr Aine Caroll – Recently appointed to a senior HSE post
– € 2,399 – Sean Finan – works “with Ireland’s largest building contractor, John Sisk & Son Ltd”, also involved with Macra Na Feirme

http://www.rsa.ie/Documents/About%20Us/RSA%20ANNUAL%20REPORT%202011.pdf
Start down at around page 100 where it gets interesting, especially this bit on page 102:
“Road Safety Authority Balance Sheet as at 31 December 2011
Cash at bank and in hand 22,832,616″

The above is a scratch of the surface of ONE Quango, the RSA, set up in 2006.

In addition to the RSA this is a list of SOME of the Transport Related Quangos under Varadkars control (Lets call them TRQs for short).

National Roads Authority (12 board members)
Medical Bureau of Road Safety (5 board members)
National Transport Authority (12 board members)
Railway Procurement Agency (8 board members)
Railway Safety Advisory Council (14 board members)
Advisory Committee to the National Transport Authority (18 board members – I LOVE this one – this is a Quango to advise a Quango – see 3 places up)
Dublin Airport Authority plc (13 board members)
Shannon Airport Authority plc (9 board members)
Cork Airport Authority plc (9 board members)
Irish Aviation Authority (9 board members)
Marine Casualty Investigation Board (5 board members)

There also are FOURTEEN Harbour Port Companies, each with 8 board members.

And the list doesn’t end there – and this is just Transport

http://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2011-09-20.2294.0

I think the whole country knows who they won’t be voting for in the next election.

This is just ONE more reason Not to pay the property Tax. As people have said they can pay billions out to gamblers and bankers and corrupt politicians and neglect the vulnerable here. Do not register , do not pay , do not panic.
Well done to the protestors at Leinster house today. I was unable to attend . It is not easy for you .

The other day , as I sat on a bench in the shadow of the statue of the inimitable Oscar Wilde,in the aftermath of yet another harsh cynical budget. I pondered for some time, to the shrill gleeful cries of playing children on that most Joycean conundrum ,”the ineluctable modality of the visible “. A solitary swallow flew , as a chill north wind blew, across the square . The sky in an instance went from blue to dark grey and small sad raindrops began to fall, ever so slowly, one, by one like teardrops from the soulful sky. Sitting there, I surmised as to the character, principles and morals of, or in some cases, lack of, of the individuals who presided within that great Monument to Palladian Architecture of a by- gone age, sans- souci ,with its uniform columns and its aging facade, intentionally opaque. Today in the cold hard light, the sad grey brick work of Chateau D’espair on Merrion Square looked all the more austere against the dark grey Dublin sky line.

IN his last speech Hubert H Humphrey said “…the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. ”

The Government in the cold harsh shadow of Wednesdays cynical Budget would appear to have failed the moral test. They showed a lack of principle and character by making cuts to the weakest members in our society : the elderly, the infirm, the handicapped, the underprivileged, the unborn , the children .

Dwight D Eisenhower once said : ” a people that values its privileges above its principles soon looses both .”

Nonetheless certain politicians in this country continue to hold onto ludicrously bench marked salaries , in a Dáil that has by statistical comparison to a similar sized country been show to be up to 60% top heavy.

Further more to their shame ,certain politicians feign to have their hands tied regarding the outrageous privileged salaries given to senior members of the now begrudgingly state owned banks.

Every cynical budget cut to the genuinely, vulnerable and needy in our society , is like another thin leaf of fine gold plucked from Oscar Wilde ‘s gilded, happy prince . When will we develop a sense of outrage ?When will we acquire some principles and morals ? Will we pluck the red ruby from the happy princes sword hilt ? Will we allow the happy prince to lose the two sapphires he has for eyes ? Must the happy prince become blind , before the people of Ireland finally see the light ?

Vulnerable people don’t get enough to live off. We heavily subsidise the person we care for. Just paid to fill up her oil tank out of my carers allowance. She is suicidal and had to give up landline and rely on mobile phone. Now the phone allowance is cut so she is 50 cent short of the minimum top up.
She is not related, just family friend. With the new household charges I won’t any longer be in a position to subsidise her from my carers allowance and pension.

“The government has defended the cut, saying the only alternative was to cut carer’s allowance itself” . What a sickening comment. The Labour party should be ashamed of themselves implementing such a measure ( only one of many) . Attacking the most vulnerable in our society with such a drastic cut – as if there was any fat to be trimmed from social welfare for the disabled in the first place ? Dont kid yourself thinking that the respite care grant will be safe from further cuts in the next budgets .
A disgusting budget . This government isnt even considering any serious growth measure or better again growing a set of balls when it comes to delaing with the troika. And wheres the strategy for jobs ? Maybe the social welfare budget could be better spent providing for the vulnerable if this government made even a minimal effort to get people back to work . But no , they re well past that – break the back of the working and middle Ireland paying for a mess that isnt theirs and when you cant get anymore blood from that stone sure you may as well hit the vulnerable a good kick in the teeth . Shame on labour , James Connolly would be turning in his quicklime grave.

Nice one Carolyn!

In 2006 the respite grant of €1,200 was paid to around 40,000 people with total cost of €48m.
In 2012 the respite grant of €1,700 was paid to around 77,000 people with total cost of €131m.

Expansion in the cost of an entitlement like this (172% increase in six years) is simply unsustainable in our current fiscal circumstances. Even with the €26m saving, this scheme will still cost more than twice as much as it did when the country was actually solvent.

All of the (non-universal) social welfare weekly rates, including the carer’s allowance, were left untouched so savings had to be made somewhere else.