Coalition Cripple Commuters with Carbon Tax Cost Increase - Tóibín
The Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD has condemned the government’s budget. He stated:
“The government is speaking in measured tones sympathising with struggling and impoverished citizens, while at the same time the government is taking more money in tax on fuel and energy than ever before. The coalition is crippling commuters with carbon tax cost increase. The Government have jacked up the cost of petrol and diesel commuters for the 3rd time in 4 months. This taken with increased tolls in July highest electricity costs on the whole of Europe is highway robbery”.
“Short-termism is the only word to describe this budget. This Budget is more about fixing the Government’s poll figures than the countries public services. This is an expansionary budget that will actually reduce funding in public services in real terms by 2% by 2026. This budget will do little about getting more Gardaí, Doctors, nurses, teachers and social workers into the system. This budget is peppered with “one off” lump sums. “One Off” lump sums do nothing to address the underlying cause of poverty in the country. 650,00 people are in poverty, 280,000 people are in electricity bill arrears, 160,000 people in gas bills arrears. One off lump sums don’t have any long term effect on the systemic challenges to low and middle income family”.
“Many of the tax reductions promised by the government will be of little benefit to families on low incomes. It appears that Fine Gael won the battle with Fianna Fail with the cut in the 4.5% in USC rather than the lower rate, if there was a real battle at all. In a sign of government priorities, nurses working overtime will now pay more taxes on their income than a landlord earning the same amount will pay on his passive income”.
“There is a nothing in this budget that seeks to tackle waste, bureaucracy, red tape. Billions of euro of tax payers money are being lost every year, from the National Children’s hospital to the 3,500 empty local authority homes taking 8 months to re-rent. There is little in this budget about real work force planning. Constraints are impacting on supply and on inflation, yet there is no real plan to mitigate against these constraints. This budget should have included a serious plan to bring home Irish construction workers who have emigrated. There should have been a real plan to educate in the numbers needed the next generation of construction workers, gardaí, doctors, nurses, teachers and, psychiatrists and social workers and how to keep them in the country. There is little point in providing for new budgets in public service areas if they are never going to be spent due to human resource constraints. Two long run investment vehicles have been announced, shocking they did not include housing”.
