Budget rip off

muincav

Am I the only one who thinks we should go out on the streets of Cavan town to protest at the way our so-called leaders in Government has treated our elderly and mostly all of us?
I see that at least one FF backbencher has resigned today, it is a pity Brendan Smith didnt have the balls to stand up to his party or else resign too.

What is your opinion on the health card issue and the budget and how it affects our area? and please if you a FF member and try to justify what they have done, please do not reply to this!!!!:mad:

irish_bob

muincav wrote: »

Am I the only one who thinks we should go out on the streets of Cavan town to protest at the way our so-called leaders in Government has treated our elderly and mostly all of us?
I see that at least one FF backbencher has resigned today, it is a pity Brendan Smith didnt have the balls to stand up to his party or else resign too.

What is your opinion on the health card issue and the budget and how it affects our area? and please if you a FF member and try to justify what they have done, please do not reply to this!!!!:mad:

my opinion on the descision to means test the over 70,s is that it is a nessescerry move , the country cannot afford to pay for a retired judge , hospital consultant or thousands of other very wealth elderly peoples trip to thier GP every month or however often it may be , the free medical card was only introduced to garner votes for fianna fail in the 1st place , that was all very well when the country was booming , i cannot get over the mushyheadednes and all round insincerity over this issue , the reality is the elderly are treated extremly well in this country and way better than across the water in the uk , they get over 200 euro a week of a pension , have free travel , fuel allowance ,a living alone allowance if they are widowed , more or less free electricity and theese are just the poorest pensioners im talking about , the rest of them on top of the old age pension often have pensions from thier jobs ( you know how much a judges or retired guards pension is ) and are very well off in terms of the assetts they own which are debt free in almost all cases , its time to debunk the myth that those who are ringing in liveline to whinge about how awfull this move will be for thier mum or dad , most of theese people ive heard described will still retain thier medical card , i suspect most of the people jumping up and down are the kids of pensioners who are worried that thier some of thier inherritance will be spent on pills or doctors , its amasing how some people have the neck to dress up greed and stingyness as some kind of morality , if this measure is rowed back on and all pensioners are to continue recieving a medical card than this will result in funds being taken from the people that are the most vulnerable in our society , the kids of struggling families with huge mortgages , lets be a more mature people , see past the end of our grandparents wallets and to the national interest , enough phoney outrage over a phoney scandal

p.s , the only people i can sympathis with for railing against this move are the opposition who would be fools not to make political hay of this issue , the behan guy by resigning has assured himself of topping the poll as an independant at the next election , not only that , 99% of the public will fall for his opportunism

muincav

I agree with some of your views but dont want to be called "Phoney" about my views-I do actually think a lot of over 70's could afford med care, but the majority cant!
I do also think that child benefit should be means tested-why should a rich man recieve the same as a poor man when the need is greater for that of a poor mans children? By the way, I guess as you may have seen today that Cowen is starting to buckle under the pressure of so called "Phoney" people like me.

Gadjodilo

When I heard about this at first, it sounded like a good idea. People who are wealthy - regardless of age - should be able to pay. But the devil was in the detail and the actual cut off point in terms of income was far too low; it was just above the maximum state pension wage. It needs to be raised dramatically.

I think this is all Mary Harney's doing. She's stuck in this far-right ideological rut whereby she believes the health service should pay for itself. Reform is needed but how about addressing the fat salaries of all those administrators in the HSE - which has been administering the health services kind of in the same way as feral cats administer flower beds? (I won't elaborate on that comparison.......!)

irish_bob

Gadjodilo wrote: »

When I heard about this at first, it sounded like a good idea. People who are wealthy - regardless of age - should be able to pay. But the devil was in the detail and the actual cut off point in terms of income was far too low; it was just above the maximum state pension wage. It needs to be raised dramatically.

I think this is all Mary Harney's doing. She's stuck in this far-right ideological rut whereby she believes the health service should pay for itself. Reform is needed but how about addressing the fat salaries of all those administrators in the HSE - which has been administering the health services kind of in the same way as feral cats administer flower beds? (I won't elaborate on that comparison.......!)

the threshold should indeed be raised considerably but from what i can see , the vast majority of people want everyone over 70 to be entitled to a medical card , this will mean a further rise in income tax levels because we all know they goverment are too chicken to do what needs to be done to cut costs , fire about 5000 surplus to requirement civil servants who are only there to keep unions quiet and fianna fail votes up
the people of this country need to wake up and realise that for every action their is a reaction and our overdone sensitivity to wealthy pensioners is going to cost us big


oh and its laughable to speak of mary harneys health plan as being far right , no far right plan would tollerate a 300 % increase in spending in 10 yrs without any apparent improovements and zero reductions in clerical staff , enough of the jaded mantra , the pd,s are history so lets stop blaming everything on them , fianna fail pinned crime on mc dowell and health on harney at the last election , they will have no such scapegoat the next time

tv3

It would be good to arrange a huge protest outside the dail and get rid of that "government" etc.

muincav

tv3 wrote: »

It would be good to arrange a huge protest outside the dail and get rid of that "government" etc.

To be honest, we shouldnt need a protest,,,after all we had an "Election" and the voters in this country voted most of the same crooks and idiots back in to power....if there was another election I pity Fine Gael coalition if they get elected to run the country after the mess FF left in! FF were great at lining their own pockets and that of the fat cat business people when the so called "Celtic Tiger" was here,, but now that the Tiger has lost its 9 lives, and FF will all have their big pensions, they dont give a fcuk about any of us--last weeks budget was just trying to prolong their shelflife, but Guess what FF,,,you are well past your sell by date, and will only be good for making people sick...
They did nothing last week to hurt their owns pocket to the same extent as the ordinary man or woman was going to hurt and anyone who thinks they did should just wake up!!!!

And yes tv3 we probably do need a protest, but getting the people out on the streets is a lot harder than you think...but at least YOUR post might encourage anyone with an elderly parent or someone who's child will be in an overcrowded classroom with a quarter of the class who cant speak English (Not Cowen or Lenihans children will have too) to get up and do something about it, even if it is only to protest to our local Minister Brendan Smith!

Sorry if it seems like a rant lads, but I and all my siblings were among the many thousands of people who had to EMIGRATE during the eighties, and I dont want to see my children having to do the same.

tv3

I agree with you 100%.How the fcuk is harney the minister for health??Then the minister for children "kitt":mad:,cowen,lenihan,all of them are sc*m..I blame the people who voted there party in there

muincav

tv3 wrote: »

It would be good to arrange a huge protest outside the dail and get rid of that "government" etc.

Well tv3- I guess it worked.....well done to all who showed up today,, and yes I was in Dublin and will do it again if I have to...

Gadjodilo

irish_bob wrote: »

oh and its laughable to speak of mary harneys health plan as being far right , no far right plan would tollerate a 300 % increase in spending in 10 yrs without any apparent improovements and zero reductions in clerical staff

Ahem! Mary Harney has not been the Minister for Health for the last 10 years. Yes, I agree that the policies of her predecessors didn't appear to do much and that just throwing money at the problem won't solve it. But anyone in their right mind knows that the population is ageing and that are about half a million more people living here now than there were before. So the health service needs more resources (and real reform), not just mindless cutbacks.

miju

do you not think she should have made some progress after at least 4 years in her current post Gadjodilo?

Gadjodilo

miju wrote: »

do you not think she should have made some progress after at least 4 years in her current post Gadjodilo?

It doesn't feel like it.... but I'm open to persuasion.