There is little or no tax benefit from Budget 2018 for 1.5 million income earners on less than €35,000, the joint leader of the Social Democrats Róisín Shortall TD said today.
Speaking in the Dáil, Deputy Shortall said:
“Yesterday’s budget represented a scatter gun approach to the country’s finances. It lacked any kind of vision or strategy. It was a missed opportunity to set the country on a fair and sustainable course and the emphasis on tax cutting is deeply regressive and very much widens the gap between the haves and have nots.
“It wasn’t by chance that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil spent the past few weeks scrapping about tax cuts. This has served as a major distraction from the big problems facing the country, most notably in housing and in health.
“Let’s take a look at what happened to tax on income. It’s first important to remind ourselves that much of income earners earn less than €35,000. In fact, 58% have incomes of less than €35,000. We frequently hear the Taoiseach and Ministers talk about people on €60-70,000 as middle-income earners but this is entirely inaccurate.
“So, for those 1.5m income earners there is little or no tax benefit from the budget. It’s interesting to note that in the Department’s Tax Policy Change document, of the ten examples shown, only two of the households earn less than €35,000. Also, in today’s, Irish times only one of the fictional households looked at earn less than €35,000 and that’s a student.
“On last night’s Prime Time programme we heard from the wife of a soldier whose family will gain just €1.35 per week. That’s an insult to any family on the true middle wage. So, for the Taoiseach to claim that everyone benefits is simply not true.”
Deputy Shortall added:
“Rather than tax cuts which benefit the better off, the Government could have targeting the high cost of living for families. The Government could have tackled the high cost of insurance, reduced the price of transport fares, controlled the cost of housing and health, or introduced free primary education for example. Not only would this approach have benefited all households, it would have been a lot fairer and a lot more sustainable.”
Deputy Shortall said the cost of healthcare was one of the biggest burdens on families whether that is those on medical cards or for those paying high health insurance.
“The Sláintecare reform programme sets out a plan to cut waiting lists, remove charges and introduce a universal public health service. It’s disappointing that the government has failed to provide the necessary funding to fully implement phase 1 of Sláintecare for next year. We have yet to hear the precise details of the health budget but it is clear that the allocation falls very far short of what is required,” she added.
Turning to the Budget’s impact on the ‘locked out generation’ of young people facing job precarity and housing insecurity, Deputy Shortall said:
“By trying to claim you have done something for everyone, you have ignored those who needed your help this most. This morning, the Taoiseach said that these policies would allow the next generation to be free from the burden of excessive debt so they can build their lives here. How do you expect them to do this when they continue to be locked out of the things most members of this house took for granted?
“They are the generation who cannot afford housing or to start a family. They are the generation who find themselves in precarious work and have been treated disgracefully by the FEMPI cuts. So is particularly disappointing that nothing has been done to target the challenges faced by the young people who have borne the brunt of the enormous debts the middle age and older generations have saddled them with. Nothing has been done to address the two-tiered pay scales which apply to new entrant to the public service.”