MAYOR of Clare Pat Hayes has sent a shot across the bows of the Taoiseach this week over what he considers to be Mr Kenny’s “favouritism” towards Knock Airport.

While Mr Hayes, a Fianna Fáil councillor, could easily be accused of taking a political swipe at the Taoiseach, he does have some evidence to support his claim.
Recently, Ryanair announced four routes for Knock and last week, the Taoiseach’s constituency colleague, Minister of State, Michael Ring confirmed a €4m capital investment for the County Mayo airport.
Mayor Hayes said he found this “very curious considering Government said earlier this year that it only had half of this amount for capital projects for six regional airports this year, let alone just Knock. Clearly, more money has been found for the County Mayo airport.”
In contrast to the support for Knock, there had recently been very pessimistic comments from Transport Minister Leo Varadkar about Shannon, Councillor Hayes said. “The minister’s comment that there is a risk Shannon will be downgraded to the country’s fourth largest airport after Knock just doesn’t add up as Shannon had 1.8 million passengers last year and Knock had just 580,000,” he noted.
Mayor Hayes has quite rightly called on the strong Government representation in Clare and Limerick, with Finance Minister Michael Noonan the most senior figure, to ensure that Shannon Airport is not sidelined.
Fianna Fáil councillor or not, Mr Hayes, in his capacity as Mayor of Clare, is without doubt reflecting the concerns of all people in this county on this issue.

Budget 2012

DIFFICULT choices are never easy. It jumps out as one of those nonsense phrases that could come back to haunt you. Taoiseach Enda Kenny came out with this gem during his address to the nation on Sunday night in advance of Budget 2012.
Mr Kenny stated the obvious to an audience hanging on his every word, “You are not responsible for the crisis”. However, it didn’t make too many people feel any better.
“My Government is determined that now the necessary decisions and changes are made to ensure that this is never allowed to happen again. Right now, our most important responsibility is to do what must be done to get our economy back on its feet,” the Taoiseach said.
At the end of the broadcast, we really weren’t any the wiser because he was speaking about past problems or referring to matters, many of which had already been well flagged, that were due to be addressed in the budget.
Mr Kenny’s address to the nation was in essence fairly neutral.
It was left to the double act of Minister for Public Spending and Reform, Brendan Howlin on Monday and Finance Minister Michael Noonan on Tuesday to spell out the fine detail of the budget, some aspects of which not only brought condemnation from the Opposition but also from a number of Government backbenches.
There was an element of farce in the main players in Fianna Fáil shooting barbs across the chamber in respect of some measures the Government had to resort to because of its inherited mess.
Most of the criticism focused on the spending cuts, more than two-thirds of which will be in the Department of Social Protection and Health. The claw-back will be €475m in the social protection area and €543m in health. In this county, the cut in funding for disabilities will spell the end of the line for the Clare branch of the People with Disability Ireland. The warning signals have also been flashing in Clare in recent times about the threat to community hospitals/nursing homes and other local health initiatives in an environment of reduced funding.
Apart altogether from the predictable political backlash, trade unions, representative groups and individuals formed a long line to vent their anger at the cuts, especially those affecting the most vulnerable.
There was some backtracking by the Government, most notably the decision to suspend the planned cuts to disability allowances for young people [new claimants] when they turn 16.
The reduction in child benefit payments for third and subsequent children, though not unexpected, has provoked a lot of debate, as has the reduction by six weeks of the cold weather fuel allowance, which is hitting the elderly.
Education is an area of interest to every single family in the country and the cuts will impact severely from primary level right through to third level. Increased class sizes, loss of support services and loss of teaching posts will be the net result for primary and second-level schools. In addition to an increase of €250 for the third-level student contribution, funding cuts will make it more difficult for students to go on to complete masters or PhDs.
The Government remained unconvinced of the risks of sending shoppers across the border by increasing the top VAT rate by 2% to 23%. However, the reduced rate of 9% remains.
Raising the price of diesel and petrol and motor tax is a setback not only for the ordinary motorist but also for those involved in the transport business.
It is these elements of the budget that the general public is most conscious of. There are many positives too that have been broadly acknowledged.
As part of the effort to stimulate enterprise, the first €100,000 of research and development (R&D) expenditure of all companies will be allowed on a volume basis for the purpose of R&D tax credit.
For hard-pressed first-time homebuyers, who took out their mortgage between 2004 and 2008, at the height of the boom, interest relief is to go up to 30%. There’s good news also for those planning to buy a first home in the coming year, as they can look forward to the prospect of mortgage interest relief at a rate of 25%.
On the income front, from January 1, the exemption level for the Universal Social Charge will be raised from €4,004 to €10,036. There will be no increase in income tax rates, no narrowing of bands and no reductions in personal tax credits.
The budget may well represent “all take and no give” by the Government for many people but others do see indicators of a slow improvement in our economy and social circumstances.
The full impact of  Budget 2012 not not be seen until all the elements are in place in the months ahead.
After that, the only thing that can be said with any degree of certainty is that come next December, the Minister for Finance will once again have to be of a conservative mindset. It’s for our greater good.