Madam, – Government ministers justified the planned 12 per cent minimum wage cut by stating that the Irish rate would be the “second highest” in Europe. However, this claim is wrong and misleading.
First, in 2009, the statutory minimum wages per hour in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and the UK all exceeded the Irish rate if compared on the basis of the Eurostat Purchasing Power Standard (See: http://www.etui.org/research/Media/Files/ EEEPB/2009/2-2009). Second, it should also be noted that there aren’t any statutory national minimum wages in many European countries, such as Switzerland, Sweden, and Germany.
This, however, does by no means mean that the collectively agreed minimum wage levels in these countries are lower than the minimum wage rate in Ireland. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – So Ibec gets its way after years of campaigning, the 3 per cent of workers on the minimum wage, mostly women in poorly paid jobs, will have €2,000 per year robbed off them, Brian Cowen on €1,800 per week wouldn’t miss it.
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, the unemployed and the poor face welfare cuts, Ministers continue to ride around in their state cars and the 2,000 people who got the banks, and therefore us into this crisis, go free. Franco and Mussolini must be laughing in their graves. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Who is to decide that the poor, the old, the young, the ill and the disabled should pay, while the wealthy are protected? Who is to decide that public hospitals are to close and children educated in porta-cabins, while private health and education be subsidised? Who is to decide that working people are to lose their jobs and their homes, while the wealthy retain what they process? Who is to decide that children are to go hungry while the rich feast? Who is to decide who shall die from lack of care, while the few are pampered? Not we the people, for they will not allow us.
Is it not time that the Irish people took their power and their responsibility and rebuilt this shattered nation? It is in our hands, we can decide to renew our Republic built upon equality, fraternity and justice. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As a resident of Connecticut, where property tax is among the highest in the nation, it is hard to be sympathetic to those in Ireland who complain of a €100 property tax per annum.
Here, one works for four months just to pay home local property tax, which pays for education, police and other local services. (“In 2010, Connecticut taxpayers work until April 27th [the latest in the nation] to pay their total tax bill, 18 days later than the national Tax Freedom Day [April 9].” – www.taxfoundation.org).
We are now looking at an additional state property tax as one way to fill the state budget deficit.
Take heart, Irish folks, from this. There is no one demonstrating here or threatening to strike. We know that prior excesses have to be paid for now, whether those excesses were our own or others’. We need to step up and take responsibility so that our economies can thrive and our children can look forward to job opportunities for which they will have been educated and trained.
CLAIRE CALLAN, MBA,
Porter Street,
New Haven,
Connecticut, US.