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DRAFTING IRELAND’S ANNUAL budget is a “tough experience”, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has said – and the discussions on next year’s budget will be difficult.
In an exclusive interview with TheJournal,ie, she said:
This will be my third budget, and it’s – put it this way – a tough experience.
But the discussions will be difficult. But certainly last year and the previous year I was able to persuade people and got the support of my colleagues in cabinet to take a reforming approach to social welfare which also maintained basic incomes from social welfare
She would not be drawn on the specifics, but said she will be “going through all of the figures in great detail”. “And I think as well, my colleagues will recognise the reforms in social welfare, the success in getting people back to work.”
She said that pulling very large spends out of the Irish economy would make deflation deeper.
Europe
Burton recently wrote a piece for the Guardian newspaper with László Andor, Pervenche Beres, Yves Leterme and Henri Maloose. “Basically saying that Europe as a whole, not just Ireland, has to reflate its economy and it has to get people back to work,” is how Burton put it.
Europe has faced crises before, like the time of the great recession and economies recovered when people got back to work and banks began to function properly in terms of giving credit to businesses. So the budget discussions will take place against a backdrop of Europe’s dawning realisation that, hey, austerity is not the only way.
“There is a rethink going on,” said Burton.
Last year her department overshot its deficit target, and Burton said she doesn’t know what the outcome will be this year. “We have to be cautious and careful,” she said. “We are hoping to be able to go back to financing ourselves on the financial markets at a reasonable price.”
So we are making progress slowly but we need a European economy where Europe itself invests in economy and if it does then that will be a really positive backdrop to Ireland recovering.
She said that “what people want is fairness and what they want is to ensure that particularly people with broader shoulders would bear more of the burden. But of course the people with the broader shoulders and the money, they often are the people to say ‘why me?’”. Of the budget cuts, she said:
In fact, we’ve tried to do what we’ve had to do in a very, very fair way.
Defaulting
Burton pointed out that she was one of the people who strongly opposed the bank guarantee: “I just thought what we did was an incredibly expensive way to go about something that was going to be very expensive anyway”.
I think we ended up costing ourselves probably twice or three times as much as it should have cost us because a bank collapse is never cheap in any country.
She said the level of social welfare abuse “is relatively low” but that in a budget of €20 billion, even 3 per cent of people abusing it amounts to millions of euro.
She has been trying to send out three messages around social welfare:
Jobs
(Thejournalvideo/YouTube)
Minister Burton had strong words to say about new jobs being created in Ireland, saying that as they arrive here, she wants “that the focus is equally on people in the live register”.
One of the thing that upsets me as a minister, is that sometimes people don’t see the resource that the live register is of our fellow citizens. And if we could get more people who are on the live register taking up jobs that are being announced, well then social welfare would come into balance itself.
She said that she has been very careful as a minister to do a lot of reform, and the fact this is being done on less money “is a significant achievement”.
I think we’ve done and we achieved a lot of good work. However we still have a problem with the banks, we still have a problem with people who are indebted. And in terms of my own portfolio, on a weekly basis I see the figures, the 290,000 people who are not working at all, and who want to work. And that certainly inspires me to do the job with all the determination and whatever capacity I have to bring to the job.
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The “charity begins at home” brigade are out in force. Charity doesn’t begin at home, it begins with whoever is the worst off.
Well said Neal Ireland. These people are so much worse off than those needing help here in Ireland. In the grand scheme of things €1.9 million isn’t huge money here but will make a huge difference in places like Sudan.
The original meaning of “Charity begins at home” has unfortunately been lost…
Spending the money in Ireland. Stop taking medical cards from the needy, reduce the closure of the Rape Crisis Centres, fund the necessary community organisations and get the homeless off the Street. There you go well spent and went a long way to providing the necessary. It’s good to be seen given Foreign Aid while our little country perishes at the hands of idiot Governments.
Do you honestly think that if we didn’t send this money to Sudan that even one penny of it would go towards any of the things you listed? How anybody can begrudge this vital support is beyond me.
Perishes? Overdramatic.
What about spending the money on our homeless people instead of giving it to other countries
What about spending money on teaching punctuation to sinn féinners ?
A psychologist friend of mine suggested that Patrick has a small manhood, hence his behaviour. The Popeye sailor man would also suggest his attraction to sailors and his fear to come out of the closet.
That’s correct. I read an article before that forum trolls either have tiny johnsons or can’t get them up for very long. The frustration leads them to lash out online in anger at the world. Great to study however.
While we’re being pedantic about punctuation, there’s no space between a word and a question mark. Practice what you preach.
Debbie, there should not, there was not but there is. Why? I do not know.
corrupt government will prob take 3.9 million of that
Mathematics and mé féiners do not seem to mix.
Apologies Patrick, I meant 1.9 million.
Its not direct government aid so hopefully the government of South Sudan won’t be able to get their hands on it because NGO’s such as the red cross do lifesaving work in these places. For those that say charity starts at home it doesn’t, charity is for those who need it most. It shouldn’t just be Ireland looking after the Irish it should be everyone helping the less fortunate/needy. Take for example the article during the week about the Irish funded heart surgery team sent to the Ukraine providing vital lifesaving operations for children. That article was well received without anyone suggesting the money should be used at home so what’s the difference here? The aid here is needed more urgently also. (I’m aware that the surgical team were funded through a charitable organization but one which, no doubt, receives a grant from the government)
We should all give we will never have to look out our window and see that devastation were talking roughly the population of Ireland on the brink of starvation here get a grip and donate.
We had our own famines and we still love to cry about it. We are different to other peoples, sure everybody loves the Irish Olé Olé Olé. Let other starving people bugger off. Do they not realise the price of a pint in Ireland?
The NGOs who get this money will spend the bulk of it on air conditioned cars, air conditioned rooms and the same food they get at home so that they live like they’re at home. Unfortunately this is a waste of money.
Wonder where all the oil money is going
Throw it in the Liffey be better off them government will get there greedy MIT’s on it and that will be it . money never gets to them . that’s why the problem will never ever get sorted.
I am in no way opposed to Ugandan’s receiving aid and I know the situation is dire over there but why is our government so quick to send money overseas and not think about using that money for our own homeless people. I just don’t get it. In Brazil the poor and needy are getting beaten off the streets so travelling football fans don’t have to see them. Does the media care about that? But luckily they’ve got Bill Gates over there to vaccinate everyone in the middle of another US proxy war.
Media very select in its reporting
The government are signed up to give millions to Africa every year. Something in the region of 236 million I think.
I notice there’s a general trend in being pro-aid and against those who would rather keep that money here but if you look at how aid is administered by Aid organisations in third world countries then you would see that the money is never used effectively, however that 2 million could change a lot if used properly in our black spots within out capital and across Ireland. Hence charity does start at home if the resources are best utilised here
50 cent each …sound :-)
Is there any country in Africa with a stable government…Christ!!!
*facepalm*
5 cent each…. sound :-)
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