50 cent for medicine scrapped-socialism gone mad?

lightspeed

just heard that james o reilly the new minister for health is going to scrap the charge of 50 cent for medicine for people on medical cards. Personally i think that this is a mistake as where is that money going to come from? Increased Income tax on the middle class , increase in USC or decrease in the dole and disabliity or all of the above? As well as the fact that most people recieving a medical card are either penisioners with their mortgage paid and few bills or people already recieving welfare payments so it seems fairer that they should have to pay at least 50 cent for each item of medicine considering we are in the worst recession and economic downturn in the history of the state. And for what is worth ive been on the dole with plenty of bill to pay before and both my parents are on disability while im on a low wage having to pay most of the mortgage but looking at this with an unbias outlook i really cant see how this is reasonable and fair in the long term.

angelfire9

I agree
50 cent is not that much in the greater scheme of things
There was an upper limit as well so its not like anyone could end up spending an entire week's dole on prescriptions!

Pauleta

Unbelievable. Its only 50 cent. i think it should be up to €1. Im sure if somebody was so stuck for the moeny that a local pharmacy would probably let them away or pay another day.

lightspeed

i voted for james o reilly and while i think he will do good things i cant help but wonder if this is just political posturing to make it look like fine gael are doing things so much better for the people than fianna fail. Also james o reilly owns his own medical practice still and so perhaps either this 50 cent charge was causing a reduction of visiting doctors everytime they had a slight rash or stomach ache so now they will visit a doctors even if they dont really need or the it wasnt causing a reduction of sick people visiting a doctor and was not having a crippling effect and there was no economic value or benifical reasoning to scrapping this charge. On another note a few weeks before the election i emailed james o reilly asking him a few questions and one was regarding the vaccination programme for women that was scrapped by mary harney which i feel never should have been scraped. he never replied to my email but a few days later he was on the front cover of the north county leader talking about bringing back the vaccination programme but ive not heard anything further about that as of yet but early days still to be fair. i cant help but think thatif he read my email at all that i didnt so much point out something that should be changed but just something that would be good to be put on the front page.

OhNoYouDidn't

How is this socialist?

sollar

I'm surprised at fine gael doing this. 50c is nothing.

mikemac

50c isn't much and there was a upper limit of 8 euro per week as far as I know.
And if you were realy badly stuck for money, if you are a local the pharmacy would probably let you off

KindOfIrish

lightspeed wrote: »

i voted for james o reilly and while i think he will do good things i cant help but wonder if this is just political posturing to make it look like fine gael are doing things so much better for the people than fianna fail.

It is just a political trick. In the near future they will have to introduce water charges, property tax, rise VAT, reduce social welfare, PS wages ect etc. At list they will have that 50c to point to

bleg

feelingstressed wrote: »

50c isn't much and there was a upper limit of 8 euro per week as far as I know.
And if you were realy badly stuck for money, if you are a local the pharmacy would probably let you off

Considering most scripts have 3-4 items on them it's usually more than 50 cent. Pharmacists are obliged to collect it from the patients and not pay it out of their own margins. The pharmacy regulator told pharmacists this.

The amount raised from the scheme is a fairly paltry sum and according to the expert group in the area of health funding doesn't justify the cost of administration of the scheme.

These facts were available to Mary Harney at the time, she chose to ignore them. It's a welcome move to get rid of the 50c levy in my opinion.

baalthor

feelingstressed wrote: »

50c isn't much and there was a upper limit of 8 euro per week as far as I know.
And if you were realy badly stuck for money, if you are a local the pharmacy would probably let you off

The maximum charge is 10 euro per month.

mikemac

baalthor wrote: »

The maximum charge is 10 euro per month.

Happy to be corrected

bleg wrote: »

The amount raised from the scheme is a fairly paltry sum and according to the expert group in the area of health funding doesn't justify the cost of administration of the scheme.

Well that's a good reason to scrap it so. Either that or raise the fee to make the scheme pay for itself

Pride Fighter

Well done to James Reilly. This is a positive step. People on medical cards are the most vulnerable in society, pensioners, unemployed, people on disability. Any charge will only serve to limit their finances.

sensibleken

OhNoYouDidn't wrote: »

How is this socialist?

anything that is bad is socialist on the politics forum. Leukemia for example is socialist because of its equal distribution around the body.

southsiderosie

Pride Fighter wrote: »

Well done to James Reilly. This is a positive step. People on medical cards are the most vulnerable in society, pensioners, unemployed, people on disability. Any charge will only serve to limit their finances.

Regardless, there is a lot of research on charging people for medical services, even in the poorest of poor countries, and it is always better to have some kind of fee, even if it is minimal, for two key reasons. First, people use the system more efficiently if there is some minimal charge - there is less waste. Second, because people are paying in, they personally feel more invested in the health and efficiency of the system. Ultimately it ends up being better for both users and the organization.

That said, Ireland and most industrialized countries are going to have to get serious about just how much it invests in health and pension schemes for the elderly. Most of these systems were set up when life expectancy was much shorter and family members handled elder care, rather than hospitals and nursing homes. As it stands, today somebody can work for 30 years, and then receive an additional 30 years of free care and free services - and in the meantime, continually vote themselves fewer taxes and more services. This is perverse and unsustainable: does it really make sense to have upwards of 1/3-1/2 of public spending going towards health and pensions for the elderly when, in the meanwhile, younger workers who are supporting the scheme are being poorly educated, and have fewer and fewer job opportunities? This is even more perverse in countries like the US, where young workers are the least likely to have health care, yet they are the ones that society needs to stay healthy in order to support programs for everyone else!

At the risk of sounding brutally utilitarian, in a public health scheme it makes more sense to invest in children and younger workers than the elderly, since it is the young that will have to support the health and pension schemes of the old. Promising pensioners the earth moon and stars in return for votes may make sense in the short-term, but in the long-term it saps resources away from other areas - education, wellness schemes, infrastructure investment - that have a better long-term return for society at large.

Doublin

lightspeed wrote: »

both my parents are on disability

Do your parents require medication while on disability? If so, please ask them the max they can pay, on disability, for their medication while not impacting on their basic cost of living. I am curious because I don't know anybody on disability/medication living the high life, pretty much a hand to mouth living with no extras in my experience.. Not like they have Mercs to bring them to the pharmacy or can claim expenses for the journey..

lightspeed

Pride Fighter wrote: »

Well done to James Reilly. This is a positive step. People on medical cards are the most vulnerable in society, pensioners, unemployed, people on disability. Any charge will only serve to limit their finances.

How are pensioners with no mortgage to pay who recieve a medical card and fuel allowance vulnerable? from what ? so if you get all that and a state pension of as much as €230 and in many case your company pension from when you were working and any other income as the state pension is not means tested you should still noy be forced to pay as much as a maximum crippling €10 a month? Are you for real this socialist propaganda that people couldnt afford this 50 cent tax?
Come budget 2012 how limited do you think your finances will be? Im working full time ,paying a mortgage , part time college education costs and the expense of travel costs just to get to work so the least vulverable who are the pensioners with no bills to pay can pay 50 cent less on their free medication in the worst economic meltdown ever.
the only reason the pharmicists wanted this scrapped is not because they care about the pensioners its because now once again anybody who doesnt really need a doctor or medicine can got and get it just in case or just for their peace of mind and not for to any benifit to their actual health at the expense of the tax payer. The same reason pharmacists urged pensioners getting over €600 from getting their medical cards cut under fianna fail because they could lose business from all the pensioners who wouldnt go to the pharmacy or doctors unless they actually really needed to but thats no longer the case at all now. hooray curse the bankers and praise the pensioners come budget 2012 when your either getting your taxes raised or social welfare cut. If this was causing people who genuinely needed health care but couldnt afford it then i would like to see a report on it made public. show me somebody just 1 person who is on a medical card and recieving benefits and cant scrounge up a maximum of €10 a month , €2.50 a week and so they ended up in a hospital or the graveyard. Ill bet you at least €10 there is not even one such person which proves 100% that this is a political move that will also give james o reillys own business and his medical friends more business and money as a side effect. Politics as usual.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

lightspeed

Doublin wrote: »

Do your parents require medication while on disability? If so, please ask them the max they can pay, on disability, for their medication while not impacting on their basic cost of living. I am curious because I don't know anybody on disability/medication living the high life, pretty much a hand to mouth living with no extras in my experience.. Not like they have Mercs to bring them to the pharmacy or can claim expenses for the journey..

My father is on disability with a bad heart and my mother has bad arthritis and used to mind kids but not anymore due to arthritis in her knees. My father gets a little over €300 a week on disablity as he claims for himself and my mother. A social worker came by the house in 2009 before i was made redundant in my previous job and assessed them and the household bills and such at that time and that was the figure given. We are by no means living it large and still have a mortgage of almost €800 a month to pay still for the next 5 years and the bank wouldnt restructure the mortgage as my father is 59 and they say they wont restucture past the retiring age of 65 ? . We most certainly are not living the high life. After paying out towards the mortgage and my travel expense to work and car insurance i come out with about €800 which is not far off from what friends my age are getting on the dole with not a bill to their name and im going to college part time with costs near €3000 a year and i heard that last year fianna fail introduced the scheme that if you are on the dole for 9 months you can go to college and still collect your dole. If it was not for that their is no other way to keep the roof above my familys head i would be in college full time but that aint an option for me. Im sick of hearing how its unfair to tax pensioners or people on disability considering the economic mountain the country has to climb.The pensioners with little bills to pay are the LEAST VULNERABLE. This recession is unfair more to people like me. Im vulerable but taking all that into account i ask the question and its the only question in this case with any relevance.
Can my family still afford as much as €2.50 a week for my fathers medication?
Answer: Yes
So should the tax payer foot this bill and not my family?
Answer: NO

Doublin

lightspeed wrote: »

Ill bet you at least €10

You can afford to waste €10 on a bet, yet you don't want your parents to have this towards Meds.. You're right, better the money be in your pocket, if thats where you think the money will end up..

southsiderosie

Doublin wrote: »

You can afford to waste €10 on a bet, yet you don't want your parents to have this towards Meds.. You're right, better the money be in your pocket, if thats where you think the money will end up..

Asking people to spend ten euro a month on medication is hardly excessive, especially given the subsidies when it comes to heat, transport, television...

Is it at all possible to have a rational conversation about social policy?

Doublin

southsiderosie wrote: »

Asking people to spend ten euro a month on medication is hardly excessive, especially given the subsidies when it comes to heat, transport, television...

Is it at all possible to have a rational conversation about social policy?

It just amazes me that a progressive society would look first to 'hit' these people on the margins, who are medically ill, and do not have the choices of those who can work. I just cannot see a reason to take from these people, for an extra couple of Euro in my pocket (which tbh it would never reach the average workers pocket). 50c? Seriously?

southsiderosie

Doublin wrote: »

It just amazes me that a progressive society would look first to 'hit' these people on the margins, who are medically ill, and do not have the choices of those who can work. I just cannot see a reason to take from these people, for an extra couple of Euro in my pocket (which tbh it would never reach the average workers pocket). 50c? Seriously?

It amazes me that in a progressive society there is no serious conversation about maintaining a viable health and educational system that works for EVERYBODY and not just elderly people or the disabled. SOMEBODY has to get educated to be able to work and pay into that system - the revenues that support these populations don't come out of nowhere! It's not about having extra money in my pocket; it's about having enough public resources available to attend to those at the beginning and middle of life as well, not just those at the end of it.

Other than righteous indignation, can you really provide any reason why seniors should not contribute to their health care services at all? Especially considering that they have far fewer out of pocket expenses than any other demographic group in Ireland?

wee truck big driver

at least the 50c charge may have helped to reduce people getting expensive medicines dished out to be left lying around. if you go to any doctors surgery you will see all the old pensioners and dolers in farting and spluterring wasting time and money. do they need to be there no. is it costing htem to be ther no. if they had to pay to be there would they be there no. do they go to pass an hour or to in between jeremy kyle and the afternoon show probably.

sollar

wee truck big driver wrote: »

If you go to any doctors surgery you will see all the old pensioners and dolers in farting and spluterring wasting time and money. do they need to be there no. is it costing htem to be ther no. if they had to pay to be there would they be there no. do they go to pass an hour or to in between jeremy kyle and the afternoon show probably.

LOL so true.

lightspeed

wee truck big driver wrote: »

at least the 50c charge may have helped to reduce people getting expensive medicines dished out to be left lying around. if you go to any doctors surgery you will see all the old pensioners and dolers in farting and spluterring wasting time and money. do they need to be there no. is it costing htem to be ther no. if they had to pay to be there would they be there no. do they go to pass an hour or to in between jeremy kyle and the afternoon show probably.

thats most likely the reasoning for it as james o reilly is a very wealthy man according to a newspaper i read at the weekend (think it was the sunday world). it said that he owns a large practice that employs a few doctors and a spokesman for fine gael said that his own business would not affect his position. How could it not i would ask? Hw owns a large medical practice and is now the minister for health.it also mentioned how under the HSE scheme his practice made a fortune though im sure no more than any other doctors have over the years. The only reason the high cost of doctors and healthcare in general is tolerated is cause the working class have to shut up and just take , it the rich can afford it and the poorer or sometimes to lazy to work folk get it for free. Oh on another note about mr james reilly i found this article whihc i had not known before i voted for him
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/jun/06/fg-td-claims-32k-for-18-mile-journeys-to-dail/

A man as wealthy as him has to cost the tax payer €32000 for traveling from rush to the dail?

Not Impressed at all:(:mad::(

Mr. Presentable

It's tokenism. Like the cars for TDs thing, but the no reduction in junior ministers. Pure tokenism. The Govt is indulging in what the public at large will think them fine fellows for while doing f*** all to change anything.

Darsad

I didnt vote for Dr J OReilly ! I suppose Mrs Merton would ask me so what turned you against the Millionaire Doctor and top expense claiming TD who likes the sound of his own voice !

caseyann

They shouldn't cut it completely(means testing),But the elderly and very sick people should be means tested and everything done to help them.And if cutting that fee helps them then all good.

lightspeed

Dont get me wrong we need a welfare system and id never want to see this country become like the usa but are a dangerous mix excessive socialism and capitalism. In America theres big tax benifits for the rich and huge opposition to obamas health care bill but over here in ireland theres a relatively low tax to the rich ,an exceptional low tax rate and big breaks for big corporate business and banks similar to the USA but unlike the USA we have a social system where some people get paid large amounts of money for breathing, A system where multi billionaires if they want to can claim a state pensions, In usa you have the ridiculous eduation system where people are having to get massive student loans as college can be as much as $50,000 a year while there are some as little as just a shy $10,000 a year and here in ireland if u have been getting unemployment benefits for 9 months or more you get a paid your dole to get an education , you can see that theres somewhat of a remarkable contrast between the 2 third level education systems in place. Come 2012 budget which is most likely what the mayans where actually referring to and not the domesday scenario shown in the movie you will see the issue of college fees pop up again and then you will see students protesting having to pay college fees when in comparison to not just the usa but many eu countries as well they are still quite low if not free. As i mentioned already both my parents are on disability but i also know a guy who is a drug dealer that lives down the road from a friend of mine and has been claiming disability for years claiming that he is schizophrenic when in reality he just prefers dealing drugs to working. We seem to have an ever more evident tug of war between extreme socialism and extreme capitalism and noone wants it to change the just want to be on the winning side or at least the side that can make more money. Ive a friend of mine who is on the dole at my age of 23 with a medical card. He says he does not need it but its free so he just get it just in case, why not?
he get €188 a week , lives with his mother with no bills whatsoever to pay and ive seen him spend over €100 each saturday nite out and even do the odd line of cok if he was in the mood though thats not something he does anymore and never been something im into but the reasoning in this case that he deserves a medical card is because if he was to get sick say once or twice a year he would not be bale to afford it. So at a cost of maybe over €100 cause i know he would not go to the doctors much if he had to pay it himself he should have a medical card even though he spends at least that on a saturday night out or day out in the bookies. i wonder how many of the medical card holders that are pensioners or young people on the dole will spend in the bookies this week with the cheltenham races?
Do you think it will be more than 50 cent? and that it be even as much as €10 which would be i months medication expense? It could even be more than €10. How are they going to afford this struggle.

southsiderosie

^^^what?

Can you reformat that to make it somewhat comprehensible?

mikemac

caseyann wrote: »

They shouldn't cut it completely(means testing),But the elderly and very sick people should be means tested and everything done to help them.And if cutting that fee helps them then all good.

Every scheme needs administration and means testing a scheme over a 50c fee would cost more money then it's worth

If you can tie it in with other existing means tests that would be better and I think that's what you meant

@lightspeed, I'm no mod but you're here since 2009, paragraphs will help

nesf

lightspeed wrote: »

Dont get me wrong we need a welfare system and id never want to see this country become like the usa but are a dangerous mix excessive socialism and capitalism. In America theres big tax benifits for the rich and huge opposition to obamas health care bill but over here in ireland theres a relatively low tax to the rich ,an exceptional low tax rate and big breaks for big corporate business and banks similar to the USA but unlike the USA we have a social system where some people get paid large amounts of money for breathing, A system where multi billionaires if they want to can claim a state pensions, In usa you have the ridiculous eduation system where people are having to get massive student loans as college can be as much as $50,000 a year while there are some as little as just a shy $10,000 a year and here in ireland if u have been getting unemployment benefits for 9 months or more you get a paid your dole to get an education , you can see that theres somewhat of a remarkable contrast between the 2 third level education systems in place. Come 2012 budget which is most likely what the mayans where actually referring to and not the domesday scenario shown in the movie you will see the issue of college fees pop up again and then you will see students protesting having to pay college fees when in comparison to not just the usa but many eu countries as well they are still quite low if not free. As i mentioned already both my parents are on disability but i also know a guy who is a drug dealer that lives down the road from a friend of mine and has been claiming disability for years claiming that he is schizophrenic when in reality he just prefers dealing drugs to working. We seem to have an ever more evident tug of war between extreme socialism and extreme capitalism and noone wants it to change the just want to be on the winning side or at least the side that can make more money. Ive a friend of mine who is on the dole at my age of 23 with a medical card. He says he does not need it but its free so he just get it just in case, why not?
he get €188 a week , lives with his mother with no bills whatsoever to pay and ive seen him spend over €100 each saturday nite out and even do the odd line of cok if he was in the mood though thats not something he does anymore and never been something im into but the reasoning in this case that he deserves a medical card is because if he was to get sick say once or twice a year he would not be bale to afford it. So at a cost of maybe over €100 cause i know he would not go to the doctors much if he had to pay it himself he should have a medical card even though he spends at least that on a saturday night out or day out in the bookies. i wonder how many of the medical card holders that are pensioners or young people on the dole will spend in the bookies this week with the cheltenham races?
Do you think it will be more than 50 cent? and that it be even as much as €10 which would be i months medication expense? It could even be more than €10. How are they going to afford this struggle.

Please use paragraphs. Walls of text like the above are far too hard to read. It just means people will skip over your posts and not bother reading them.

NIMAN

I think this is wrong.

If you give people things for free then they place no value on them and it can lead to abuse. I think the nominal charge is a good idea.

I was in the chemist the other day and was standing beside an elderly man. Now I know that just looking at someone tells you nothing about them really, but if I had to bet I'd guess he was realtively well off. He was well dressed and had parked up a fairly new car. He was charged 50c for his medicine, whereas the steroids for my sick infant cost me €5.50.

In this example, I don't mind paying for medicine for myself, but surely infants under a certain age should also be exempt?

And what will happen now that the 50c charge is being abolished? Will the next medicine for my child cost €6?

Sir Oxman

I think as others have said that those not thought of as vulnerable (~20s-~60s working) should be thought of and some type of support given even if it means railing in some of the over-generous at times support for the elderly/unemployed etc

Why can't all social supports be targetted rather than example, rule #1, you qualify because you managed to reach 70 even though you have no bloody major outgoings but whilst you, who may be juggling paying astronomical childcare just so you can stay in work and scrape the utility bills each month, qualify for feck all.

Johnboy1951

So, how many of the posters in this thread are deemed to be in the 'vulnerable' section of our society?

From a quick read-through, it appears to be that all other views are represented but, few if any, of those who are disabled, aged etc .

It seems to me that those who are now aged and/or disabled, who during their working life scrimped and saved and worked bloody hard to have a little for this time in their lives are the ones who are getting the dirty end of the stick.

If they have savings to help live out their lives they will not get a medical card until they have spent most of it.
They will pay full whack for all medicines ..... after spending about €60 for each visit to the doctor.

While that is happening, those who made little contribution to society during their lifetime ...... and there are and were many who would not work officially when work was plentiful and made a career of dole drawing etc, ..... get the majority of benefits that those who did most and tried to save do not get.

The whole system needs an overhaul.

As one poster said, I cannot see how a collection of 50c could possibly pay for the administration not mind make any contribution at all.

Unfortunately is it mostly the elderly/infirm who have to make use of those who cheat on their social welfare, by paying them to do the necessary maintenance work on their property.

IMO, it is time the 'black economy' large hole was plugged.
One way might be to offer those employing others, a means of offsetting that amount against their 'income' for means test and other calculations.
That would encourage all those using 'black' labour to report such payments which would soon cut out the cheating on social welfare claims.
The next time you have someone in to clean your chimney, or the chutes, or cut the grass or hedging or whatever, you get their PPS number and a receipt for the payment made, and return that as an offset against whatever income you might have.
In that way the 'working dole claimers' get automatically reported, while at the same time those who are 'vulnerable' get allowed for the necessary payments they have to make due to their age/infirmity.

In time, expand the scheme so that tax payers can offset similar expenditure against their tax bill, and let those who receive it pay their share of tax.

I have no figures for what this might contribute to the coffers, but am convinced that the savings on dole payments would be substantial. There would also be savings on the wages paid to those whose only function seems to be to try to 'catch' those same cheats.

If it did little more than make those schemes more equitable and visibly fair, it would have achieved a huge gain in the minds of the people.
I believe it would do much much more ......

The present system is biased in favour of those who have little or nothing at present.
Unfortunately there seems to be no way to differentiate between those who have contributed to society all their lives through working hard, paying taxes, and if they were lucky saving something for a 'rainy day', and those who have been a burden on society all their lives.

regards.

pragmatic1

He should have increased it to at least 2 euro. Pharmaceuticals are way too expensive and loads of people dont even use half of what they're given. Dumb move.

oppenheimer1

bleg wrote: »

Considering most scripts have 3-4 items on them it's usually more than 50 cent. Pharmacists are obliged to collect it from the patients and not pay it out of their own margins. The pharmacy regulator told pharmacists this.

The amount raised from the scheme is a fairly paltry sum and according to the expert group in the area of health funding doesn't justify the cost of administration of the scheme.

These facts were available to Mary Harney at the time, she chose to ignore them. It's a welcome move to get rid of the 50c levy in my opinion.

The purpose of the levy was to cut down on pensioners going into the pharmacy as a matter of habit getting prescriptions filled. The savings to the national drug bill rather than the amount raised by the levy was what was to be the key driver.

I remember helping the neighbours clean out the house of an old lady after she died and the amount of unused medication in the place was staggering. I assume pretty similar scenarios exist in plenty of other houses across the country. Being made pay a small amount, even a token sum, such as 50c will reduce unnecessary filling out of prescriptions.

dan_d

His name is James Reilly.

I'm late with my understanding of this. Can someone in very brief format explain the system to me. You "qualify" for a medical card, with this medical card you get some form of discount on prescriptions, and for some reason 50c was added to the price by the last minister? Or have I got it all wrong? I find it to be an odd move on the part of a health minister, but I'd like to know how the scheme/system works properly before deciding whether it's right or wrong.

And how does this interact with the Drugs payment scheme cards, given that I know many people who are paying 120eur a month for asthma inhalers, plus the GP fees 50-60eur, every few months when the prescription runs out (because GP's won't do it any other way), and who aren't entitled to any kind of reduction in this, even though it's something they buy every month of every year.

I also have issues with the price of drugs full-stop in this country, but however, can someone please explain in brief?

irishh_bob

Pride Fighter wrote: »

Well done to James Reilly. This is a positive step. People on medical cards are the most vulnerable in society, pensioners, unemployed, people on disability. Any charge will only serve to limit their finances.

thats right , every pensioner ( who this reversal is meant to curry favour with ) in the country is bob cratchet poor

irishh_bob

caseyann wrote: »

They shouldn't cut it completely(means testing),But the elderly and very sick people should be means tested and everything done to help them.And if cutting that fee helps them then all good.

the last goverment tried to means test pensioners , the country went beserk

wow sierra

The 50cent charge was a good idea. Many poorly paid workers dont qualify for a medical card and have to pay doctors fees of 50-60 euro and full prescription/drug charges while people on medical cards get every thing for free. This 50cent charge was an attempt to share the burden more widely. Cancelling it was just one more populist policy from this new Government which tries to pretend it is the idealistic alternative to Fianna Fáil. Give me a break:(:(

All this so called change - the reversal of the 50cent charge and the minimum wage (the reduction only applied to new jobs so shouldn't affect anyone currently working, and should encourage job creation) - is just an attempt to divert attention from the fact that they are in fact following the programme of the previous government. In their attempt to pretend to be different they have managed to target two of the better ideas of the last government. Fianna Fáils populist ideas helped get us where we are today - surely our new Government could at least pretend not to fall into the same trap:(:( It's only taken them a week.