Children 'suffer as banks unpunished'
THE crisis Budget has allowed reckless bankers to escape punishment while targeting innocent children, a social justice lobby group claimed last night.
In a scathing 16-page analysis, CORI Justice, the social lobby of the Catholic Religious Orders in Ireland, said Finance Minister Brian Lenihan's second Budget in five months lacked "a guiding vision".
"The Budget allows many of those who created the present series of crises, particularly the banks, to escape. At the same time the vulnerable, particularly children, are targeted to pay for the misbehaviour and fraud of others," CORI Justice director Fr Sean Healy said.
Fr Healy sharply censured ministers for showing "a profound lack of understanding" of the extent of the social crisis that Ireland faces.
Fr Healy claimed the Government identified unemployment as the only social crisis facing the country, but ignored major problems concerning children, older people, people with disabilities and those who are ill.
"Failure to acknowledge this... is of serious concern," Fr Healy continued. "It suggests a Government that does not appreciate the serious nature of recent developments."
He was critical of the taxpayer having to underpin a new National Asset Management Agency which will take on assets potentially as high as €90bn. "The first principle of action to tackle toxic debt should be that the exposure of the taxpayer is minimised," Fr Healy said.
Crossroads
In sharp contrast to how the banks were being looked after, Fr Healy expressed his fury that the Early Childcare Supplement was being halved now and would be abolished at the end of the year, and also that the proposed Child Benefit will be taxed or means-tested in Budget 2010.
Arguing that Ireland was at a crossroads and the roots of the current economic crisis lied in past policy decisions, Fr Healy said it was crucial that similar mistakes were not made again.
- John Cooney
