The International Monetary Fund has ordered the Irish government to slash dole payments, cut child benefit, and take the automatic right to a medical card away from old age pensioners.
The IMF also wants the government to introduce a hard hitting property tax as it seeks a return on its investment in Ireland.
The proposals have come from the IMF in a hard hitting directive ahead of the government’s December budget.
The IMF is currently bank rolling Ireland’s economic bail-out along with the European Union and their latest orders have been met with harsh criticism from opposition groups and trade unions.
IMF bosses, in Dublin for their regular review of the Irish economy, ordered the Government to cut high social welfare benefits to encourage people back to work.
They warned: “Dole payments are high by international standards and responsible for low exit rates from the Live Register.
“With the Irish economy to grow by just 0.5pc this year, certain welfare payments should be means-tested to avoid long-term unemployment.”
The Irish Independent reports that the Washington based IMF admitted it has targeted a ‘few low-hanging fruits’ for cuts.
It also said that future Irish budgets need to focus on ‘efficiency and fairness’.
The body’s Mission Chief for Ireland Craig Beaumount unveiled a stark assessment of what the IMF expects to see in December’s budget.
He outlined what the paper called a ‘series of unpalatable options’ to cut spending while protecting the vulnerable.
Beaumont specifically mentioned removing the universal right to child benefit for all families and medical cards for the over-70s.
He also suggested targeting child benefit at poor families and limiting the issuing of medical cards.
Beaumont said: “Child benefits are universal. There is no means testing so all families qualify for child benefits. And the child benefit amount has risen very substantially in the last decade so it is quite an expensive part of the social welfare budget.
“We are just laying out the option that you consider paying it to the families who are relatively less well-off and save quite substantial expenditures in the process.”
The IMF also wants to see an end to the practise of giving everybody over 70 a free medical card.
Beaumont added: “Similarly with the medical card, all persons over a certain age, I think it's 70, qualify for a medical card."
The population over 70 is going to be rising so the cost of the medical cards will keep on rising.
“One way to contain that type of demographic pressure is to again look to some means testing on eligibility for those medical cards.”
In response, a spokesman for Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said: “The Cabinet will take the budget decisions at the time of the Budget and will endeavour to implement the measures in as fair a way as possible.
“The IMF review has acknowledged the progress that had been made in returning the economy to growth, restoring order to the public finances and dealing with the banking crisis.
“The IMF also pointed out that many challenges remain.”
The IMF did praise the Government for its implementation of the Croke Park Agreement, the €2.25bn stimulus plan announced this week, and the continued work towards meeting debt repayment targets.
36 Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.toTheStreets | Sep 23, 2012, 03:13 PM EDT
whens the protest ?
MichaelMcGrath | Jul 25, 2012, 07:23 PM EDT
Ocassio, The Anglo Irish Bank Prommissory Note = 31 Billions. Mass Immigration into Ireland cost = 40 Billions and still mounting ( in Health, Education, Welfare and Housing- especially in Welfare money that has to be borrowed from the Troika ) I think the game is up and the cost of mass immigration has to be placed on the Irish Balance Sheet.
Curitiba | Jul 23, 2012, 05:48 PM EDT
All that's keeping a lot of people going in Ireland is the dole. I can see Ireland becoming a "shell" country very soon, due to the increased rate of emigration that will be taking place.
seanomelb | Jul 21, 2012, 08:43 PM EDT
The safety net wage in the U.S. is between $7 and $10 for adults the safety net for 16 yr. olds in Australia is $7.30 and $16 for adults.I do not know the safety net in Ireland. I do know that any tampering with protections on social services or minimum wages would be disastrous for Ireland. Sirpeter and Ireland North have nailed it. Beware of the international banks hey are only motivated by self interest and care little for the general populations anywhere.
sirpeter | Jul 20, 2012, 01:20 PM EDT
@IrelandNorth.That's a good comment.The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is a 2007 book by Canadian author Naomi Klein weather true or not is an interesting read.The book argues that the free market policies have risen to prominence in some countries because they were pushed through while the citizens were reacting to disasters or upheavals.It is implied that some are man-made crises.Winners and losers of "economic shock therapy" – how narrow groups will often do very well by moving into luxurious gated communities while large sections of the population are left with decaying public infrastructure,declining incomes and increased unemployment and poor health care.I like to keep an eye on what's happening in America.It's an indication of what could be coming our way very fast.According to a special report from the U.S. Census Bureau,46.2 million Americans are now living in poverty.If inflation was still calculated the way that it was 30 or 40 years ago,the poverty line would be much, much higher and millions more Americans would be considered to be living in poverty.The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.Last year, 19.7% of all U.S. working adults had jobs that would not have been enough to push a family of four over the poverty line even if they had worked full-time hours for the entire year.There is a direct link between poverty and every social ill.These cuts to the social welfare system are bad news Irish society in general.
Searlit | Jul 20, 2012, 12:51 PM EDT
The problem, as I see it is that the, IMF or whichever colluding financial group is controlling the market, say they only want to cut benefits to the wealthy that can afford it, yet when they get their way they use these laws or acts and such to undercut the welfare of the people who really need it. It leads to a form of economic slavery.
bogsidebunny | Jul 20, 2012, 08:22 AM EDT
Plain and simple so everyone will understand: The irish government will NOT cut the controls over the public. Don't matter who tells them to. Take the toys and candy from the kiddies and there'll be big tantrums!
IrelandNorth | Jul 20, 2012, 06:11 AM EDT
Ireland didn't fall from being a buoyant Celtic Tiger economy to an economically compromised one over night - it was pushed! Debt entrapment is the new neo-imperialism. The EU I believe, determined to drag the wild colonial boys of Ireland kicking and screaming into their Federal European superstate, may have been instrumental in compromising the economy (See book "Inside Anglo: The Bank that Broke Ireland"). The mainland Europeans, like other colonial predecessors, know that it's far less costly to economically sabotage a clients independent economy than to have to garrison troops in hostile terrain. (The Romans learned this lesson earlier, by installing their client King Herod the Great in Judea to do their bidding). I intuit the IMF are being used as ventriloquists dummies to verbalise unpalatable policies the Irish government really want to impose - without the unpoularity. A kite-flying exercise before the summer recess. Nice cop/bad cop. So that Irish politicianas can go back home from Dublin down the country every long weekend and say to their irate electorate - it's not us. It's those bad IMF dudes in Washington and those sprouts in Brussels. Still, there are very well off rich kids and pensioners collecting state benefits/pension whilst not exactly needing it. And taxing property holders isn't exactly regressive in a week when IC reported 33,000 millionaire households in the greater part of Ireland. Hitting all millionaires for 1% wealth tax would cure a lot of social ills.
mairint | Jul 19, 2012, 10:19 PM EDT
Here we go, the next step of the New World Order crowd. If this report is true, we can see it ties in with the abortion crowd, the euthanasia bunch. The very young and the very old are just "low hanging fruit" to be disposed of according to this report. Population selection and control is openly declared. We were thinking they had died out with Margaret Sanger and her program that Hitler had adopted. Save the money for the rich dictators by depriving the poor and the elderly who are no longer any use to them. Any poor guys in the IMF?? Trouble is, the Irish Government are no better now. They will do what the NWO dictates because some of them have membership in that too. The recent anti Catholic carry on of Taoiseach Kenny, Gilmore and Shatter proves this.
seanomelb | Jul 19, 2012, 10:18 PM EDT
Cut social services and the the rich get richer typical IMF crap
VonLiebenitz | Jul 19, 2012, 09:55 PM EDT
This is idiotic.We never created this debt and we should never of had to pay for it.There is simple solution here.Tax the f**king rich!End corporate welfare and end welfare for the rich i.e low or non existent tax rates and increase to minimum wage to 10 euros.Then people will have more money to spend.The poor cant be taxed any more than they have been. And never should have been hit with cuts in the first place.This inhuman system people erronerously refer to as "free market capitalism" is nothing but a cover for a racket set up to protect the parasitic upper class.A line has been reached.No more cuts on the poor.If they try just wait and see what will happen.It wont be nice my friends. Not at all.They day we wrote off debt in the private banking sector and unsecured loans is they day democracy took a big hit.Are we going to let it die completely.The Irish people make me sick.A bunch of whipped dogs.Pathetic.
Belphagor | Jul 19, 2012, 04:48 PM EDT
I don't agree with everything the IMF have demanded is fair, especially concerning pensioners but sadly the celtic tiger has been revealed as nothing more than a regular tabby in an oversized tiger suit. The EU poured money into Ireland when they lowered corporate tax rates in the 90's and business was good but when they took the decision to join the Euro they have now become totally dependent of the European Central Bank. It's a case of you will do what the IMF say or you should leave europe, bankrupt and in terrible debt.
WoundedKnee | Jul 19, 2012, 04:33 PM EDT
Occasio: "Why is this financial crisis the fault of immigrants and not the fault of the bankers/criminal financiers/real estate shysters". Where did he say it was the "fault" of immigrants? Read his post again. As to the bankers etc. that you mention, don't you get it? They're the self-same class that instituted Mass Immigration! It sure wasn't the workers--they have nothing to gain from Mass Immigration. The people who gave Ireland Mass Immigration now give Ireland Mass Emigration.
irishtonyo | Jul 19, 2012, 03:55 PM EDT
@ forflann Maybe if both you and the so called 'journalist' who wrote this bothered to read the article in the Irish Independent, you would see it does not state the IMF 'ordered' anything. Then again assume both of ye are too lazy to check sources and facts before writing rubbish
occassio | Jul 19, 2012, 02:11 PM EDT
MichaelMcGrath. Why is this financial crisis the fault of immigrants and not the fault of the bankers/criminal financiers/real estate shysters that rolled the dice weighted to their advantage and for which we now are paying? Yes, there are the lazy and recalcitrant. But they aren’t the majority. For decades in the U.S., manufacturing companies have been sending their businesses overseas to workforces that get no minimum wage or medical benefits. Read the expose about Apple in China. Manufacturing was American’s saving grace and now is decimated. An article in the NY times states that, From the high point in the summer of 1979, through last month, employment in manufacturing has fallen by 8.1 million, to 11.6 million, with most of the drop in just the last decade and, consequently tens of billions of dollars in lost wages. Where there are no jobs (thank you adrienrain), there is no pay and the dole kicks in. The problem is top down so the solution should not be bottom up!
staker42 | Jul 19, 2012, 01:58 PM EDT
Sensational headlines again bush journalism. I am sure IMF did not present things as the headline of the article reads. What's wrong with means testing for people if there are peoplewho can afford to share the cost and congrats to Dublin born for telling it like it is. What a lot of people forget government has no money only what they take from people who work and give to people who think they have a right to sit on there ass and let hard working people support them
forflann | Jul 19, 2012, 01:09 PM EDT
irishtonyo: Irish central clearly stated the source of this article was The Irish Independent. As far as IMF suggesting? Get behind in Your mortage and see what "suggestions" your bank gives you! The larger and more powerful a bank gets the more demanding they are. Old people and children are the first to fall victim to budget cuts in the US also. They are the throw-away population. Have you ever seen a politician cut his pay to help the deficet? They sure don't in DC!
MichaelMcGrath | Jul 19, 2012, 12:33 PM EDT
The Dole, Child benefits and elderly medical cards have to be cut to pay for the masses of immigrants. There is only one cake and it has to be shared out. Many of the Irish wanted the immigrants so now they will have to be prepared for cuts to pay for them, about 4 billions a year and that's minimal. I have no problem with these cuts at all, they are not the IMF's fault, they are the fault of Irish people who do indeed want more and more immigrants and of the Irish government and Shatter especially creating tens of thousands of more Irish citizens. You have to pay for your new Irish, you won't get away from this. So it's no good throwing the blame on the IMF or anybody else.
irishtonyo | Jul 19, 2012, 12:24 PM EDT
More untrue sensationalist headlines from Irish Central. The IMF has made suggestions which the government can implement or not. You guys should try and get a few decent journalists on this site, rather than this rubbish.
bunkerisland | Jul 19, 2012, 12:21 PM EDT
IMF views elders over 70 and children as "long hanging fruit" to remove? What a disgrace.
seagreen | Jul 19, 2012, 12:19 PM EDT
The property tax will be the real wake up call. The Irish will find that even though your home is paid for in full, you will never really own that house with the property tax. Hundreds of thousands of Americans paid off the mortgage, only to lose their homes to the State or Government when they were for whatever reasons unable to pay property taxes that were swollen by unneeded high schoos with swimming pools.
adrienrain | Jul 19, 2012, 12:13 PM EDT
Pathfindr - Since Clinton's welfare 'reforms' there is a cap on the number of years a family can collect welfare, but there is no legal mechanism to provide jobs when there are no jobs. So a shocking number of families with children are now living in homeless shelters, cars, even in alleys. An alternative is to have them taken from their parents, into notoriously bad institutions (far more costly than welfare) or into foster homes (also very expensive). If we brought back tariffs so that our workers didn't have to compete with child slaves in third world sweatshops, we could perhaps recreate the economy we once had, and fewer people would be poor, but 'free trade' prevents that. We will have ot live with the consequences of our heartlessness for many decades, as these kids grow up poorly educated, poorly nourished, and angry.
Searlit | Jul 19, 2012, 12:08 PM EDT
I don't trust the IMF!
Searlit | Jul 19, 2012, 11:17 AM EDT
I have a 1st cousin with 4 kids who never worked a day in his life gets e765 pw got a free house all benefits,encouraged his 18 year old daughter to have a baby with her boyfriend asap so she would qualify for a single mothers allowance get free housing etc then her boyfriend moves in with her,he's on the dole and they all live happy ever after.He said that he is entitled to this it was his birth right.where else could this happen?how special do the Irish think they are?Lazy shower of bastards
casualMBA | Jul 19, 2012, 11:03 AM EDT
An IMF line item budget. How nice. Perhaps the IMF, while raising real estate taxes in pursuing "efficiency and fairness" in budget (and on the IMF's Rate of Return,) will rule in favor of real estate "fairness" to the Fitzgeralds in Southwestern Ireland. Leaders in authority, culture, religious freedom, and political defiance, the Fitzgeralds have been waiting to be "bailed out" from the most colossal heist (and shuffle) of real estate in Ireland's sovereign history!!!
Pathfindr | Jul 19, 2012, 10:46 AM EDT
The USA will soon have to make some of these tough decisions regarding its social welfare entitlements.back in salad days, it was a win-win situation. The Republicans could push for tax cuts and dabble in social reforms, while the Democrats could advance social welfare and dabble in tax cuts. But when the economy goes South, things get polarized, and class warfare ensues. We are in for hard, and bitter times.
jamieLM | Jul 19, 2012, 10:33 AM EDT
@rugbyplayer, you're right that no country can support an unlimited number of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. There aren't enough jobs for everyone and not enough money to provide benefits to everyone. It's overwhelming and unsustainable for the host country.
johnshiel | Jul 19, 2012, 10:27 AM EDT
Am currently reading book about famine and years prior. Much discussion of British attempts to tailor "aid" to encourage people off the dole and onto the workroles. Same idea as here. But massive difference when people are perishing and jobs are nonexistent, versus situation today. Are business owners in Ireland reporting difficulty getting people "off the couch" and back to work, as they are here in the U.S.?
WoundedKnee | Jul 19, 2012, 10:22 AM EDT
rugbyplayer; Well said. A few weeks back IMF head honcha Christine Lagarde was quoted as saying that taxpayers in European countries including Ireland would have to fork out more. Then it emerged that her IMF sinecure salary is tax-free.
CitizenWhy | Jul 19, 2012, 10:13 AM EDT
The IMF enslaves countries. It's a huge loan shark pretending to help.
rugbyplayer | Jul 19, 2012, 10:00 AM EDT
No doubt that if a nation has a homogenous population things can often be better. But that isn't the world we know today as migrations rather than invasions of various people to other lands is now the norm. Who pays the bills is the question now asked from the USA to most of the industrialized world when more prosperous nations face overwhelming numbers of immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers entering their borders and seeking or in need of a nation's benefits. Solutions can be brutal but then unrest amongst nationals and new arrivals is always on the horizon. The IMF, usually a favorite work destination for well-off sons and daughters of international well-connected parents, will always advocate austerity for the less fortunate while its well-born members attend frequent Washington, D.C., soirees laden with canapes and cocktails. But it really offers banal solutions to some potentially volatile situations.
hollabackgurl | Jul 19, 2012, 09:57 AM EDT
First the financiers wreck the economy, then they take it over, then they charge the people for taking it over, then they throw the people to the wolves.
stephendoyle | Jul 19, 2012, 09:38 AM EDT
WoundedKnee: It appears the EU wants to go the US route, the states united into a country, or in this case the Europeans united into a single entity. It is really the only way to save it and under that system welfare would be supported by the EU as a whole, not the Irish trying to support much larger populations than a small country can support..........
WoundedKnee | Jul 19, 2012, 09:31 AM EDT
Stephen: Welfare payments for citizens seems a perfectly reasonable policy, but I suspect the EU would veto it. And when the EU says Jump! the Irish government becomes a kangaroo. I am afraid I don't know how much welfare non-citizens are entitled to in this country. I guess citizens and Green Card holders get pretty much equal treatment, though I did have a friend, a former holder of a Green Card, who retired overseas and found his Soc Sec slashed.
stephendoyle | Jul 19, 2012, 09:22 AM EDT
How about welfare payments just for Irish? There's a novel idea that would surely cut the budget.........
WoundedKnee | Jul 19, 2012, 09:01 AM EDT
The Irish government won't do this, but any Irish government worth anything would stop paying child allowances to children in places like Poland, Estonia, Latvia etc. A Pole who claims say six children in the old country (whether or not these children exist, it doesn't matter) could "earn" well over 1500 bucks a month thru this welfare payment. That's well above the average wage in Poland, and the guy hasn't worked for one minute (unless you count his bedroom activities as work). It's madness at any time, but certifiable insanity in the case of a country that is broke and has to borrow abroad to make these payments. An Irish govt with some backbone would say to the EU "Sorry, we're broke" and stop this insanity.