Ireland's head is on the block

Dear Sir,
I was never able to understand Brian Cowan's decision to hand Brian Lenihan the  job as Minister of Finance, one of the toughest jobs in the Government,  particularly as he has little or no experience in accounts. Unfortunately, my  reservations were proven to be well founded with blunder after blunder and u-turn after u-turn.

Now it seems that some of the measures announced in the budget cannot be implemented  because of legal restrictions. It beggars belief. Surely when it comes to  trying to means test the children's allowance the simplest solution is to  set a ceiling where income is concerned targeting the very well off, above  which the onus is on the individual to produce his own accounts confirming  his entitlement to the allowance. This type of self-assessment would save the  taxpayers millions and could be implemented immediately.
It is also of great concern to us all that migrant workers who travel to this 
country to avail of easy social welfare payment are not dealt with more 
harshly. It would again appear that the Government is trying to deal with the  problem when it arrives on our shores rather that tackle it at source.

The  Irish Government should lobby the EU to introduce new laws, which would ensure that  any foreign national travelling to Ireland or any EU state should be  entitled to social welfare benefit in that state only if they have worked for at  least one year in the state visited or if not, would be entitled to social  welfare payments only the equivalent to that which is available in their country of  origin, whichever is the lower. This simple law would ensure that only people  who intend contributing to our economy would ever consider the journey.
Simple measures such as these, if implemented, could save the hard-pressed taxpayers  millions if not billions. But are they too simple for the present government who seem more intent on hitting the most vulnerable, insisting in these  hard times, that we all eat cake. Mr Lenihan seems much happier oiling an old antiquated political machine than trying to build a new one. Unfortunately, this time 
it is not his, or the government head, that is on the block, it is Ireland's.
Yours etc,
Eugene McGuinness,
Kilkenny.
086-2632468