25 October 2013 Press statement Socialist Party supports todays protest against maternity benefit cuts Overall reduction of €3,500 per mother over last two budgets Speaking ahead of todays protest taking place at 1pm outside the Dáil in opposition to the cuts being applied to Maternity Benefit, Socialist Party Councillor and ROSA activist Ruth Coppinger said: Between the decision to tax Maternity Benefit in last Decembers Budget and last weeks Budget decision to apply a further cut of €32 (12.7%), mothers on average lose €3,500. Like most of the other welfare cuts last week, Minister Burtons claims that headline benefits remained intact obscures (not very well) the fact that sizeable minorities like the estimated 23,000 new claimants of Maternity Benefit are going to be hammered. Could there have been any more blatant anti-woman measure applied by Minister Joan Burton? Are we still to believe like SIPTU General President Jack OConnor that we need Labour in government to protest us from worse austerity than this? The savagery of all the cuts applied since the crisis began arises from the logic of capitalist austerity. Its a policy choice. The Socialist Partys pre budget statement argued that a different set of choices (repudiation of the debt, taxing the rich and high earners and taxing profits) have consciously not been made by this government because it is a government of the rich. Todays protest is a welcome and correct initiative. However it needs to be part of a sustained protest movement against austerity. Such a movement would be doubly powerful if it embraced a radical left and anti-capitalist programme. Socialist Party and ROSA members will continue arguing for this within the broad anti-austerity camp. Ends For information and confirmation Note to editors: ROSA website can be found at rosa.ie and the Socialist Party pre budget statement at socialistparty.net/economy/1296--budget-2014-the-socialist-approach
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 07:19:07 +0000