Social Justice Ireland publishes 'Alternative Budget'

The Government could meet the Troika’s requirements without inflicting pain on the poor and vulnerable, according to Social Justice Ireland. By Richard Chambers. 

Speaking at a policy briefing this morning, director of Social Justice Ireland, Dr Seán Healy, said the government could meet the €3.6bn budgetary adjustment for 2012 outlined in the EU/IMF's Memorandum of Understanding by implementing the organisation's "Alternative Budget".

Healy acknowledged that the Government was highly unlikely to implement the proposals outlined in the fully costed document, before warning that Budget 2012 would likely offer "short term gain for long term pain".

Ireland's tax take is low in comparison with other EU Member States. Social Justice Ireland say the Government must increase the total tax take by €2 for every €1 cut from public services in the 2012 Budget.

The proposals for increasing the tax take do not involve any change in income tax. Instead, the organisation proposes the introduction of a 2.5% levy on corporate profits; a tax of a third of a cent on text messages; a 2% nutrition tax on salt, alcohol, sugar and saturated fats (similar to that introduced in Denmark), and an extension of the additional Universal Social Charge levy of 3% to all income in excess of €100,000 regardless of its source. At present only the self-employed pay this additional levy. 

Asked whether a 2.5% tax on profits would affect multinational investment in Ireland, Healy said he has seen no evidence to suggest it would be affected.

Corporations “should pay their way” towards meeting the goals set for Ireland by the Troika, he said.

Dr Sean Healy, Director of Social Justice Ireland

“I put this initiative to the last Government,” he said. “They could not produce any evidence that this would affect any corporate entity.”

“They (corporations) robbed the country blind. They robbed the world blind. Poor people are being dispossessed to pay banks in Germany and France. There is a myth that the corporate sector is all that generates wealth.”

Dr Healy believes that even under the terms of the Bailout Agreement, that Ireland can still provide for its vulnerable. Referring to a meeting with the IMF earlier this year, he said that Ajai Chopra, the head of the IMF mission to Ireland, believed “the government has a responsibility to vulnerable”.

 Other proposals in Social Justice Ireland’s Alternative Budget include:

  • A programme to create 100,000 part-time jobs in the public sector for people in long-term unemployment.
  • A refundable tax credit to address the issue of ‘the working poor’.
  • The introduction a third-level ‘income-contingent loan facility’ to pay fees and cover living expenses.
  • An increase in funding for primary level education and adult literacy initiatives.
  • Support for developing an integrated healthcare model through supporting primary care, the elderly, mental health initiatives and family programmes.
  • Meeting the UN target for Ireland’s Third World Aid Budget.

Images: Richard Chambers.

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