Madam, – As I was urged to do so, this month I “modified my behaviour” and saved enough from my disability allowance to pay the mandated prescription charges on the drugs that I need. Hopefully, I will be able to do the same for the months of November and December.
However, when January comes along I may not be able to do so. This will be because of the December budget. Most likely I will have to choose between paying for what my doctor considers that I need, and putting food on my table. It is probable that at that stage my money will be reduced even more because the Minister for Social Protection has already indicated that social welfare payments will again be reduced; probably so that the bankers’ dole can be maintained at the appropriate level.
Another government who sought to appear “responsible” to the gamblers, sorry they should be described as investors, was that of Cumann na nGaedhael in the 1920s and they were so vilified by the grandfather of the above Minister that when I was growing up 30 years later, the name of Earnán de Blaghd (Ernest Blythe) and his cut of “a shilling of the old-age pension” was remembered with horror.
The Whig government of 1846 also tried to behave appropriately towards the “free market”, and the result was that righteous people had to steal “Trevelyan’s corn” in order to keep their children from starving. After almost 200 years this bit of behaviour modification is recalled in sporting venues throughout the world.
I wonder how will the behaviour of this Government be recalled in the future? As John Gormley exhorts me to do, I want to contribute the little I can to the recovery of our poor country, but what stops me for now is the knowledge of the unfairness of the health tax that is demanded. The way they are going, this Government will ensure that the “lads of the resistance” will have plenty of martyrs; amongst them probably will be yours truly. – Yours, etc,