MINISTER FOR Social Protection Joan Burton has said she is “enormously concerned” at the possible impact of new taxes on low-income families.
Speaking at the publication yesterday of a book detailing supports and entitlements available to unemployed people, Ms Burton was asked her views on the probability that water charges and a property tax would be discussed at today’s Cabinet meeting.
“My department would be concerned and I would be enormously concerned about the impact of any new charge on people on low incomes because remember there are lots of people on low incomes who are working as well as people on low incomes on social welfare or who are on pensions.”
She had no sight yet of details of proposed new household charges.
“I’m sure that will be discussed in detail tomorrow at Cabinet. Certainly I will be raising those issues.” She was speaking before her publication of the 18th annual Working For Work compiled by the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU).
Among the areas the booklet outlines are social welfare rates, looking for work, education and training opportunities, tax rates, redundancy information and rent supplement rates.
Robert Lynch, manager of the welfare to work section in the INOU who oversaw the compilation of the 167-page booklet, said 25,000 copies had been published a month ago.
“We have had hundreds of requests every day since for copies from individuals, organisations, public representatives and we now have just 2,000 left.”
Ms Burton described the publication as “very important and highly accurate”, saying that when a person was newly unemployed and “at a loss as to how to pick up the pieces, a book like this gives a pathway to follow. It’s not just about social welfare rates. It’s about options.”
She was particularly concerned about young people leaving education and moving straight into welfare dependency. “One of the things we have to do as a society is to challenge ourselves as to what to do with young men in particular who are not engaged by school and leave and think they are the ones who will get jobs.”
