The Workers’ Party have strongly condemned the government’s decision to cancel the annual Christmas Bonus payment for social welfare recipients, saying the decision effectively cancels Christmas for these families.

Workers Party President Michael Finnegan said the decision as “penny pinching in the extreme” and he pointed out that the €223 million in savings the scrapping of the bonus will make amounts to less than half of one percent of the cost of the banking bailout.

“The decision to scrap the Christmas bonus will cause misery and hardship on a huge scale to up to 2 million people this Christmas.  This small concession has over the years been of huge importance to families who depend on it to make ends meet at this time of year.   Families are already under massive pressure and already there are many thousands of people going to charities for the ffirst time in their lives even before this decision was announced.  It is a truly heartless and unforgiveable decision from Minister Mary Hanafin today”, said Mr. Finnegan.

The Workers’ Party President said his party would be running a national campaign on the issue over the next few weeks under the slogan “Even Scrooge had a Heart at Christmas”.  The party will highlight the contradiction between this decision and threats and the huge sums of money being used to shore up corrupt banks.

Issued 11th November 2009