Sir, - Although we have a booming economy, a high level of our population are living in poverty. I think the amount of money given by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, to people in the poverty trap was "a sop to Cerberus". An increase of £3 a week in social welfare will buy two loaves of bread and a few pints of milk. There certainly won't be any mince pies. Mr McCreevy has a golden opportunity now, with a billion-pound surplus in the kitty, to take people out of the poverty trap.
Towards the end of his Budget speech in the Dail he said that "we will see that on the day when we had the extra few pounds in our pockets, we made the right decisions". I hope Mr McCreevy will make the right decision and tackle poverty now. - Yours, etc., Anna R. Quinn,
Hyde Park Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin.