Sinn Féin will protect the unemployed and low paid

Cllr Anthony Kelly has said that his party alone stands for the protection of Irelands unemployed and low paid. The County Wexford Sinn Féin candidate has promised to reverse the savage Fianna Fail budget cuts, and to help initiate a major job creation stimulus if elected.

"Fianna Fails measures for getting out this recession not only failed totally, but also attacked the most vulnerable citizens in our society," Cllr Kelly said this evening during a canvass in Ferns. "Low paid workers and the unemployed, who up until recently were tax payers, have been treated as second class citizens by the Fianna Fail led administration. Let us not forget that other parties running in this election who now claim to stand against cuts were only too happy to support the passing of budget 2011."

“Social welfare payments have been drastically cut and people are struggling to cope. The poorest of the poor are being punished because of a lack of an affective job creation plan. The Universal Social Charge is an unfair and regressive flat tax and should be scrapped. It should be replaced with a progressive taxation system which makes those who have more, pay more. The cut to the minimum wage is an affront to workers rights and is yet another targeted attack at the least well off in society."

“We in Sinn Féin are committed to:

- Reversing the social welfare cuts
- Abolishing the Universal Social Charge
- Reversing the cut to the minimum wage
- Introducing refundable tax credits
- Changing PRSI rules to protect the self-employed if their businesses fail"