Speaking on her motion :- Cllr Sinead Guckian

Speaking at the meeting Cllr Guckian expressed her grave concern over a number of issues with the Governments budget 2014.

At the outset Cllr Guckian outlined that due to the restrictive nature of one “notice of motion”, she found it hard to decide which cut was most important to highlight. “The last five years have been incredibly difficult for the majority of people in this county and this Council has made numerous calls, in a variety of ways, to the Government, for the burden of the adjustment to be spread in line with people’s ability to carry it, but I fear that this budget places, once again, a disproportionate share of the burden on those least able to carry it.”

Cllr Guckian expressed her anger at the fact that working mothers are set to lose an average of around €3,300 during their maternity leave as a result of cuts introduced in the budgets for this year and next. She said this is a retrograde step, making it more difficult for mothers to take this important time out of the workplace. The Budget announcement on Maternity Benefit has significant implications for numerous working mothers, future working mothers and employers alike.

Cllr Guckian said that the number of calls and discussions she had with regard to the way pensioners were targeted in this budget was so significant that under the restricted one motion per member she had opted to highlight their biggest concern in her motion, she acknowledged that not all future Mothers would necessarily know that they were going to “be so” and therefore wouldn’t be lobbying on the Maternity benefit cuts and she suspected the Government used that to their advantage too.

Cllr Guckian then sought the support of all Members in calling on the Fine Gael-Labour Government to reverse their decision to abolish the Telephone Allowance for pensioners.

Cllr Guckian outlined, that at their most recent meeting in October all members  highlighted the poor coverage in Leitrim of the mobile phone network in various areas and she said she was horrified that the Government had claimed that the landline was unnecessary and that older people could just use a mobile phone for their security alarms and pendants. She questioned whether the relevant Ministers had actually read any of their letters outlining the poor mobile network coverage in areas around the county.

Cllr Guckian outlined that last years reduction in the telephone allowance was felt by those most in need and the complete withdrawal of the allowance was unacceptable. She requested the Government to find a mechanism of ensuring that those that genuinely couldn’t afford to keep their landline would receive an allowance, she advised for rural dwellers this was extremely important. “with the closure of many local Gardai stations, it is  imperative that older members of our communities had the use of a landline.

She welcomed, most of the contributions from other members and welcomed the support of all, in calling on the Government to reverse this unacceptable announcement.