Making the right choices
What does the budget mean to you?
Traditionally, people tuned in to the
budget announcement to hear whether the price of petrol was going up,
whether drink and cigarette prices were being hiked, or whether any
changes were being made to increase tax or to cut the dole.
These years the budget looms over us
like the end of the world and most households dread it. €25billion
has been taken out in taxes and cuts since this crisis began and the
government plans to take another €9billion, minimum, to reach the
3% Stability and Growth Pact target. This year’s budget alone will
hit us with another €3.5billion in taxes and cuts. This is against
a backdrop of continued payments to bank bondholders and the
promissory notes (€64billion into the banks so far) and the refusal
of the government to stimulate the economy and create jobs.
The policy of this government, like the
last, is to make ‘adjustments’ that impact the most on those who
can take it the least.
Taxing the lowest paid, squeezing
families crippled with mortgage debt and rising bills, attacking the
disability sector, decimating hospitals and schools, and tearing at
the fabric of rural communities has become the norm at budget time.
People don’t tune in to the budget
now to see what the price of drink or petrol is going to be. They
tune in to see if, after this budget, they’ll be able to feed and
clothe their children, pay the ESB, keep their car on the road and
keep a roof over their heads. Some will watch this budget wondering
if their children will get home from England, Australia or Canada.
They will wonder if this state will ever again offer a future to
tempt them back for good. They will know that along with their
children, 87,000 people emigrated last year and the same numbers are
predicted to emigrate next year.
People have been sorely let down by
this new government. The Labour Party promised they’d protect the
vulnerable at budget time, yet they continue to target children, the
disabled and the elderly. Fine Gael promised an end to crony politics
and a new era of openness, yet their health minister, who will
preside over more health cuts in this budget, has become yet another
symbol of a failing political system.
Budgets are about choices. Do you
introduce a property tax that will target already stressed families,
or do you introduce a wealth tax that asks the richest to contribute
more? Do you cut the state pension, or do you change the tax
treatment of private pensions? Do you target child benefit, or do you
reduce the salaries of politicians, CEOs and top civil servants?
And fundamentally – do you
concentrate on reducing a deficit with taxes and cuts, or do you look
at the wider economy to see what the real problems are in employment
numbers, in your banking sector, and in emigration figures?
These are the choices that the
government has before it. So far, Labour, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil
have shown themselves capable only of making the wrong choices, the
cowardly choices.
Sinn Féin believes the government’s
role in the economy has to be about more than deficit reduction at
the end of the year.
We have consistently set out the need
for investment in job creation and we just recently launched a
€13billion stimulus plan and a range of other measures to save and
create jobs. We have consistently argued for an end to the bail-out
of banks and bondholders. And we’ve consistently set out
growthfriendly, fair measures to make a deficit adjustment that adds
up, but has the least harmful impact on families and services.
We set out in our alternative budget
how to meet the €3.5billion deficit adjustment that the government
wants to make next year. We also set out new expenditure proposals
that would improve people’s lives.
This Sinn Féin alternative budget is
about more than just reaching a €3.5billion target. Ours is a
budget that makes a difference – to the state’s finances and to
people’s lives.
Our budget is about making the right
choices.
Alternative budget measures
Budget adjustment: €3.5billion
Proposed new expenditure:
€338.68million
New taxes after tax adjustments:
€2.758billion
Tax carry-over: €220million
Savings €1.044billion
(Tax and savings net of expenditure
amount to €3.684billion, which allows €184million for partial
year effect in 2013 and ensures a €3.5billion adjustment)
Proposed new expenditure
(€338.68million)
Protecting children’s rights
(€163million)
- Free schoolbooks for every child in
the state - €45million
- Increase the earnings disregard by
€16.50 to €146.50 per week for One Parent Payment - €32million
- Double to €70million the budget
for school meals and expand programme - €35million
- Increase the fuel season allowance
by six weeks - €51million
Give families a break (€30.68million)
- Reinstate 950,000 home help hours
- €16.9million
- Restore the training and materials
allowance for CE participants - €12.5million
- Reduce the fee for non-GP-referral
attendances at hospital A&Es by €10, bringing it down to €90
- €1.28million
Staffing frontline services
(€145million)
- Lift the recruitment embargo to
hire 3,500 frontline staff - €145million
New taxes after tax
adjustments (€2.758billion)
Improve revenue audits (€100million)
- Clamp down on black market and
false declarations - €100million
Income taxes (€456.5million)
- Third rate of tax of 48% on portion
of income over €100,000 - €365million
- New Employer’s PRSI rate of
15.75% on portion of income over €100k - €91.5million
Wealth taxes (€1.110billion)
- A 1% tax on net wealth over
€1million with working farms, business assets, 20% of the family
home and pension pots excluded - €800million
- Increase Capital Gains Tax from 30%
to 40% - €160million
- Increase Capital Acquisitions Tax
from 30% to 40% and reduce thresholds by 25% - €150million
Tax reliefs (€969million)
- Standardise discretionary tax
reliefs (except charitable donations) - €969million
Landlords (€177million)
- Reduce mortgage interest deduction
allowable against rental income from 75% to 40% - €157million
- Apply PRSI to rental income
- €20million
Private pensions (€126million)
- Increase taxable amounts from super
pensions - €13million
- Reduce the pensions-related salary
earnings cap to €75k - €113million
New taxes (€243.5million)
- 5% tax on shop, course and online
gambling, paid by consumers - €243.5million
Tax adjustments (-€423.7million)
- Adjustment on tax side to allow for
capping public salaries (-€115million)
- Reduce excise on petrol and diesel
by 5 cent (-€177.7million)
- Take all those earning minimum wage
(€17,542) out of USC, exempting an additional 296,000 earners
(-€131million)
Tax Carry-over (€220million)
- Full year carry-over from last
year’s budget tax related measures - €220million
Savings (€1.044billion)
Social welfare (€67million)
- Social welfare amnesty - €55million
- Recoup welfare paid from employers
in wrongful dismissal cases - €12million
Health (€712.5million)
- Apply the full cost of private care
in public hospitals - €432.5million
- Deliver further savings on branded
medicines and implement full generic substitution - €280million
Education (€22million)
- Phase out the public subsidy of
private schools over five years - €22million
Salaries (€204.5million)
- Introduce an emergency pay cap of
€100,000 in civil and public service for 3 years - €102million
- Cap VEC chiefs’ salaries at
€100,000 for 3 years - €413,201
- Cap City and County managers’ pay
at €100,000 for 3 years - €1.46million
- Cap non-commercial state agency CEO
pay at €100,000 for 3 years - €2.5million
- Withdraw current Secretary General
TLAC (special severance pension payment) - €1.6million
- Cap hospital consultants’ pay at
€150,000 for 3 years - €90million
- Reduce all state agency board fees
by 25% - €6.5million
Pay and Oireachtas allowances
(€5.58million)
- Cut government salaries to
€100,000, TDs at €75,000 and senators at €60,000 - €4.3million
- Abolish Dail and Seanad allowances
(Ceann Chomhairle/whips/Seanad leaders) - €335,177
- Abolish committee chairpersons’
allowances - €230,702
- Remove Houses of the Oireachtas
Commission payments - €76,000
- Remove Super Junior Minister
allowance - €34,000
- Cap Ministers’ special advisors’
pay at €80,051 (first point principal officer) - €494,481
- Scrap Oireachtas members’ mobile
phone allowance - €113,000
Miscellaneous (€32.46million)
- Reduce government jet spend by 15%
- €172,000
- 15% reduction in professional fees
- €20million
- 10% targeted savings in
telecommunications spend: Saves - €2.29million
- Increase public sector pension
reduction for high earners - €10million