Budget 2012

The Labour party went into last year’s general election with the warning that a one party Fine Gael government could not be trusted to maintain child benefit rates, that they would increase VAT by 2%, increase car tax and introduce water rates.

However, since entering government the Labour Party has betrayed the people who put their trust in them. They have capitulated to each and every right wing policy put forward by Fine Gael including the reduction in child benefit payments for third and subsequent children and the reduction of eligibility for lone parent payments.

The Labour party is simply acting as a mud guard for Fine Gael’s right wing policies and they are quickly becoming as irrelevant in this government as the Green Party were in the last.

People are now seriously asking the question; what’s the point in having Labour in government if they cannot protect the most vulnerable in society or at least live up to their pre-election promises.

They should be ashamed of this budget and they should be ashamed of their role in government.

Sinn Féin had shown that there was an alternative to harsh austerity measures. We set out, in our pre-budget submission, how the deficit could be reduced in a progressive way without cutting the social welfare budget or targeting the least well off.

Labour chose the wrong way and in doing so they have turned their back on their traditional base.

This photo shows myself and my colleague Sorcha NicCormaic with local party activist Chris Curran protesting at Labour TD Alex White's constituency office in Rathfarnham in the aftermath of the budget.