Madam, – In response to Paul Keating’ s suggestion (November 28th) that the Government replace a portion of social welfare payments with food vouchers, I wonder if it would also be possible to persuade the banks to accept his food vouchers as a form of legal tender, as the reality for many recently unemployed social recipients, like myself, is that our entire social welfare payment and more is spent servicing mortgage debt.
Alternatively, why does the Government not offer a percentage of personal tax reliefs in the form of food vouchers? If Mr Keating’s idea is so fair, why not offer it to all citizens of the State and not just those who were unfortunate enough to lose their jobs? I am also intrigued how Mr Keating can extrapolate that those doing their shopping North of the Border are in receipt of social welfare payments. Where is the evidence for such a sweeping statement? – Yours, etc,