METRO Friday, December 11, 2009 D One card So many gift ideas Gifts, gift cards and the ghd styler. TODAY: Overcast start, rain clearing later. Max 10C TOMORROW: Dry, some sunny spells, breezy. Max 10C METRO Weather Hood you believe it Cambridge Shopping centre bosses with a no hood policy apologised to an 84-year-old woman, after she was told to lower the hood of her anorak. MENU THE Home Digest 4 Guilty Pleasures Celebrity gossip 6 World Digest 12 Letters & Puzzles 16, 22 MetroLife Arts and entertainment 18-19 60 Second Interview Author Louis de Bernieres 20 TV 20-21 Classifieds 23-25 Sport 26-28 Help keep Dublin clean and tidy for everyone by taking your Metro with you and recycling it The people of Ireland have been failed... THE Budget was yesterday branded breathtakingly unjust and a failure for all the people of Ireland. One of the countrys leading campaigners, Fr Sean Healy of Social Justice Ireland, launched a damning analysis claiming it was anti-family, anti-poor and anti-children. A society is measured on how it treats its vulnerable people. Using that yardstick, this Budget has failed Irelands people, Fr Healy said. Meanwhile, dentists have claimed the Budget has effectively killed off PRSI dental support for 2million taxpayers because of the new cap on spending for those seeking dental treatment. Irish Dental Association chief executive Fintan Hourihan said: This budget is an unmitigated disaster. CA Pic Caption Ragged CA Pic Caption Ragged CA Pic Caption Ragged CA Pic Caption Ragged The recession will get deeperTHE Government was last night accused of implementing the most right wing Budget ever seen in an attempt to cut the minimum wage. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions claimed the slashing of social welfare payments and public sector pay was the start of a race to the bottom that will drive down pay and conditions. The umbrella group warned reductions will not be taken lying down and revealed a plan for industrial action will be decided in the New Year. General secretary David Begg said: What has happened is too brutal and too quick. In terms of its manipulation of the labour market, this is the most right wing Budget I have ever experienced and it will drive us deeper into recession. Wednesdays Budget cuts came just days after pay negotiations between unions and officials collapsed. ICTU president Jack OConnor said five per cent of the people had been targeted at the expense of 95 per cent. Meanwhile, the general secretaries of the four teaching unions revealed any further talks with Government were over. Furious: David Begg BY CON DOHERTY Cowen looks to better debt deal following Budget ireLaNd can look forward to bet- ter lending conditions on interna- tional financial markets because of the difficult measures taken in the budget, Taoiseach brian Cowen said last night following his arrival in brussels for the european Union summit. asked if he was confident that in- terest rates on irish debt would fall, mr Cowen said: Yes, i am. because the country has a borrowing require- ment next year of 18.8billion, the fact is that is an important consid- eration. it cant determine totally our pol- icy, but it is an important considera- tion for the country getting access to funds as we make this adjustment over the next few years, he said. mr Cowen said he believed the budget has been well received in- ternationally. it illustrated the de- termination of the government and the irish people to manage our own affairs and to do whatever is neces- sary to show that we would stabilise the deficit, he said. Having stabilised it and having sought to protect to the greatest ex- tent we can the more vulnerable people in society we now have to proceed to work for recovery. i think it has been well received in that respect, he added. mr Cowen stressed that there was no avoiding the 4billion pay and welfare cuts in the toughest of budg- ets, but insisted that the measures would demonstrate to ourselves and to others that we are succeeding in mastering the challenge. Finance minister brian Lenihan faced a barrage of criticism as he continued the tradition of fielding public questions on rT radio af- ter his budget speech. but he declared the worst was over and launched a staunch de- fence of the budget, warning people hit by cuts they have to live in the real world while looking forward to our economy growing in the middle of next year. THE Labour Party has called for TD Jackie Healy-Rae (pictured) to resign as chairman of the Oireachtas Social And Family Affairs Committee. The Independent TD supported the Budget 24 hours before it announced 16 cuts to child benefit and 4.1 per cent cuts to social welfare. As an independent he has no excuse, said Labours Roisn Shortall, but Mr Healy- Rae said he voted as he saw fit. All hands on deck: Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme talks with Brian Cowen during a European Union leaders summit in Brussels yesterday Picture: Reuters index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html