Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It over-promises and under-delivers. When one strips away all of the PR we have seen in recent days, this budget targets the elderly, medical card holders and young mothers. It abandons people who are struggling to keep their homes and, yet again, incredibly, the Government has gone out of its way to insulate the better-off from the worst effects of it.

The way pensioners have been targeted in this budget is disgraceful. They are our parents, grandparents, people who have lived through far greater hardships than any of us can appreciate. Not only will many of them lose their medical card, they will have higher prescription charges and lose their telephone allowance and bereavement grant, while DIRT is going up. Even the dead are not safe from the Government. As if it is not enough to take property tax from the estates of the deceased, the Government is removing the modest grant their loved-ones receive to give them the dignity of a decent burial.

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