The Labour Party is to organised a national campaign to try and force the Government to backtrack on social welfare cuts announced earlier this month.
Under the decisions announced by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, €58 million will be saved from reductions in rent allowances and in other payments.
Demanding changes, the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said the Government had opted to hurt the weakest sections of the community.
"We feel that we can embarrass the Government into reversing these cuts on Budget Day. That is why we are embarking on a national campaign," he declared.
Rent supplements will not be paid unless tenants have been renting for six months, while those who refuse an offer of a local authority house will be denied rent allowance.
Single parents who get a job will no longer be given help with crèche costs, while they will also not get half their social welfare for a year if they earn more than €293 a week.
People suffering from dietary conditions, such as Coeliacs Disease, will no longer get help with the extra costs they face, "even though a gluten-free loaf can cost €4".
The changes have been strongly criticised by the Vincent de Paul, the Simon Community, the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed and several trade unions..
The decision to deny people community welfare assistance if they are also getting help from the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs) was particularly criticised. Mabs staff help people to pay off debts and budget their finances.
"They help to keep people away from moneylenders," said the Labour TD, Mr Willie Penrose.
The Government is seeking to place community welfare officers "between themselves and the public", claimed the Labour TD, Mr Michael D. Higgins.
The €58 million cuts reflect the Government's right-wing drift, said Mr Rabbitte, adding that Fianna Fáil refused Progressive Democrats efforts in 1997 to make similar changes.
Some Fianna Fáil Ministers were now even more ideologically driven than their Progressive Democrats colleagues, the Labour leader told a press conference.
"They believe in the free market.
"They believe that these people are spongers and that they should get on their bikes and get a job," Mr Rabbitte said.
"They want to look after the friends of this Government who live outside this country and only come back to buy up State assets."
The cuts had been accepted by Ms Coughlan, he claimed, because she did not understand the impact they would have on the poor.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, had deliberately tried "to move wealth upwards" from the very first day that he took up office, he went on.
The Exchequer rent allowance bill now exceeded €300 million annually because housing prices had escalated, thus putting houses out of the reach of most people.
The Government last year capped monthly rent allowance payments to €1,200 a month. "But it did not cap the rents," charged Mr Penrose.
