It was the deal with the IMO that turned the scheme sour.
Negotiated by ⌠Iâll leave that one to you Art
The stomach for it was gone; besides I have difficulty with retired Hospital Consultants, Politicans, Judges and Senior Civil / Public Servants getting a medical card.
Any tax people out there? Can ye confirm the rule re: ex-residential; are they allowed State Pension, Free Travel etc
[quote=âMairegangaireâ]I doubt the Greens had much to do with any part of that budget.
The parking levy is an oldie; the DTO has included it in their annual budget submission for years. When it was first touted; Dublin City Council; then the Corpo; was the biggest provider of staff parking; donât know if thats still the case; but its the public sector that enjoys most of the Cityâs parking.
The hinderence on its implementation was the Public Sector Unions; 200 yoyoâs is nothing; stump up.[/quote]
Yeah the parking levy has fuck all to do with the Greens.
Think theyâve been crazily quiet on the whole thing. Theyâre making a mini-stand on the budget but theyâre doing it all too quietly and complicitly. Iâd like to see a bit more radical thinking from them - back to principles and all that. Iâve an awful lot of time for Trevor Sargent as a politician - pure honourable and he brought the party a long way. But populists like Gormley arenât doing them any good.
Iâm with SS** on the medical card thing. Irrespective of your income when youâre over 70 itâs completely unfair to lecture people into saving for their old age and then to penalise them for doing so. Also it re-introduces a stigma to the medical card for the elderly, itâs now a public delcaration of your income. And finally there are none more cautious than the elderly when it comes to spending money. Youâll have plenty of situations where the oul lad will hold onto the cash and wonât be too willing to fork out for a doctorâs bill for the missus every time she gets a bit of a knock to the hip.
Saw Behan on the news last week and he came across excellently. Said he regretted voting with the government on other occassions and class sizes, medical card etc policies in the budget were the last straw. This was not the party of Lemas, De Valera which he wanted to be a member of this. As for the Greens itâs a sad day when political heavyweights like Michael Kennedy are more vocal on the budget (even if it isnât sincere) than they are. If Sargent was leader of the party I suspect they would have been more powerful in the government. With Finnian McGrath rumoured to be close to not supporting the government it could make their position a little more powerful. Their performance so far has been really poor though.
Finian McGrath has withdrawn his support for government in response to the budget from hell.
Yeah agree with that. When I heard he had quit I thought he was some back bencher looking to use the budget to have his 15 minutes of fame but he came across really well. Watched it with my auld lad, a hardcore Fianna Fail man, and even he said fair play to him.
He also mentioned that he was seriously annoyed when Mary Coughlan said it would be disrespectful to the Taoiseach if any member of FF spoke out against the budget.