Thursday, 19th October 2017
info@eastcorkjournal.ie
Minister David Stanton Welcomes Budget 2018
Cork East Fine Gael
TD, and Minister of State at the Department of Jus- tice, David Stanton, has welcomed Budget 2018, including the allocation of €2.6 billion to the Justice sector.
Minister Stanton said
“The Budget is in keeping with Fine Gael’s key mes- sages of creating opportu- nities and making life eas- ier for families, providing further assistance to vul- nerable people, improving the lives of elderly people and boosting investment in communities”. “Measures introduced
to assist families include reductions in USC rates, increases in the One Par- ent Family Payment and Jobseekers’ Transitional Payment
gards, an increased in the threshold for receipt
earnings disre- of
Family Income Supple- ment (now Working Fami- ly Payment) and increases in the weekly rate of the qualified child payment.
Budget 2018 will also pro- vide for a €5 per week in- crease in all weekly social welfare payments and a rise in the national min- imum wage to €9.55 per hour”. “Small business owners
will be boosted by a €200 increase in the Earned In- come Credit, the launch of a Brexit Loan Scheme making up to €300m available
to SMEs at a
competitive rate and the creation of a new Key Employee
Engagement
Programme (“KEEP”) to support enterprises in their effort to attract and retain key employees”, said Minister Stanton. “The largest ever Ed- ucation Budget
of over
€10 billion, with an extra €1billion this year, will re- sult in 1,300 new school teachers, a reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio to 26:1 at primary level and over 1,000 new Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) in September 2018”.
“To tackle the issues of housing and homelessness a total of €1.83 billion will be allocated to housing while the Housing Assis- tance Payment (HAP) will increase by €149 million, to meet the needs of over 25,000 households next year”. “Among the measures
included in Budget 2018 which will have a direct impact on older people are increases in the State Pension to come into ef- fect in March 2018 and additional investment
in
the Free Travel Scheme. Reductions in prescrip- tion charges for all med- ical card holders under 70 from €2.50 per item to €2 per item with a sub- sequent reduction in the monthly cap from €25 to €20 have also been intro- duced”. “Further measures in- cluding the retention of the 9% VAT rate for the tourism sector are
also more pertinent in the con-
text of Brexit and vital for the economy of rural Ire- land”.
Minister Stanton also
welcomed the €100 mil- lion increase in current expenditure for the Justice sector and confirmed that an additional €157 mil- lion has been secured for 2018-2021 leading to total capital investment of €838 million over the next four years.
increase
“Garda numbers will again in 2018
after 1,400 new recruits were hired in the last two years. 800 Gardaí and an additional 500 civilians to further aid the organisa- tion and to facilitate the redeployment of Gardaí will be recruited. Addi- tional funding has also been earmarked for large Garda infrastructural pro- jects, ICT technology in the Courts service and a Public Private Partnership project to improve court facilities in seven locations around the country”.
Cork’s Housing Crisis Is Even Worse Than You Think
by SEAMUS WHELEHAN
The housing crisis
across the County is worsening according to a report seen by the East Cork journal. In the
past
months 530 new appli- cants have joined the lo- cal authority’s housing list that now stands at 4,771. Of those almost 1,200
are on the list less than one year with 220 waiting over 10 years. The
leased on the
information re- request
of Sinn Fein Cllr Des O’Grady shows that
al- most 500 have either an
intellectual, mental, phys- ical or sensory disability. Further analysis shows
that 92 are homeless or in emergency accommo- dation although it doesn’t break the figure down fur- ther.
twelve
October sitting of the local authority he
deeply worried the Coun- cils low levels of home building is worsening the housing crisis. This year Cork County Council deliver only 10 new builds with a target to deliver 274 new units across the
county by
2019. The Sinn Fein Cllr said
Cllr O’Grady told the was
he was not putting the blame on Cork County Council but accused the government for the wors- ening crisis. “The government con-
tinue to use the mantra finance is no object but when it comes down to it finance is a huge object. The money is not being provided,” he comment- ed.
“More and more peo-
ple are spending longer times on the housing list and that’s an intolerable situation.” Fellow Sinn Fein Cllr McCarthy said
Melissa
she was “shocked” that 92 people across the county
are either homeless or in emergency accommoda- tion and we have no place to put them. Cllr John O’Sullivan
said he believed there are a number of people who are happy to rent but for them to receive payment
rental assistance they
first need to be on the housing list. The Fine Gael Cllr said;
“There should be a mech- anism to separate those who are happy to be given supplementation and stay in rented accommodation and concentrate our re- sources on those who are actively looking for social housing.”
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H LET LIGHT N
ST. MARY’S HIGH SCHOOL MIDLETON, CO. CORK
- OPEN EVENING - Thursday, 26th October, 4:30-6:45pm
Parents and prospective pupils welcome.
Principal’s Address at 6:30pm Closing date for applications 9th November 2017
T: 021 463 1973 Email:
midletonstmarys@gmail.com @eastcorkjournal / #eastcorkjournal eastcorkjournal Tel: 021 463 8000 • Email:
info@eastcorkjournal.ie • Web:
www.eastcorkjournal.ie
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