Major cuts, public uncertainty and mass opposition; B- DAY IS UPON US.

Few were surprised at Wednesday’s Budget, we had all expected major cuts in the severest budget since the Celtic tiger. Public sector, child benefit and dole payment cuts had all been outlined and very much opposed in the weeks prior to B-day. Still, the reality of Wednesday cuts deep.

Many public sector worker wages are being reduced by 4%+ and sacrifices will have to be made. For many Christmas will be a daunting period and this is very real.

The fact that child benefit is to be cut across the board is strange and unusual. The very practice of offering the rich and highly paid the same benefit as the poor or average joe is a joke. The Government has said that means testing is virtually impossible but surely an institution with access to an abundance of information on each citizen and has the means to means- test and allocate college grants can do the same for child benefit. The suggestion that this is impossible is naïve.

Probably, the greatest shock was that nothing was being prepared for graduates. There is no certainty that recent graduates will have a job. Rather, they are being forced to re-train, as what? No one is sure, or take a cut in social welfare. In fact these graduates look set to face an up- hill battle. Not to mention being combined with a totally new pool of graduates if and when the economy picks up.

The Government had to make some severe choices given the state of the economy but a lot more has to be done.