Taxation debate: Fine Gael has called for a minimum tax rate of 20 per cent on the income of those very wealthy who use the residency regulations to avoid paying tax to the Exchequer.
The party's finance spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, also said the Government's pension scheme was a masquerade and said the money set aside for pensions should be invested in Irish infrastructure instead of "foreign shares". He also said that poorer parents should be paid an allowance to stay at home to help their children with their schoolwork.
Addressing Fine Gael's one-day national conference in Galway, Mr Bruton said the Government had become the "godfather of rip-off" instead of the consumer's champion. "Confidence has ebbed away. The public money is not well planned, well managed or directed to deliver the priority needs of ordinary people," said Mr Bruton.
He defended Fine Gael's opposition to the benchmarking pay awards after delegates applauded the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Mr David Begg, when he said there was no sense of proportion to the debate.
Mr Bruton said: "The benchmarking process was a unique opportunity for the Government to retrieve lost ground and pioneer a serious reform agenda. This chance was passed up. Instead, commitment has been made which will ultimately cost every householder in the country €1,000 each year in perpetuity. No adequate value for this money was obtained."
People had lost faith that a sense of fairness pervades the tax code, he said. There should be a minimum tax rate of 20 per cent on very high earners who use artificial tax shelters to reduce their contribution to the Exchequer.
"The notion that a person who 'bed and breakfasts' for half the nights of the year outside the country should have no tax obligations has no foundation in efficiency, enterprise or fairness. This threshold should be raised."
He said the Government should cap the special savings scheme while the Exchequer struggled to fund public services. It should do this by refusing to allow savers to increase their contributions in a scheme in which they receive €1 from the State for every €4 they set aside. "Those who wish to withdraw should be allowed to do so without the punitive 23 per cent tax penalty."
He attacked the Government over the stealth charges signalled in the Budget Estimates and said more charges would emerge in the Budget on Wednesday.
On the bank industry, Mr Bruton called on the Government to take immediate action to force banks to facilitate people moving their accounts. "There should be a freeze on all bank charges." Instead of taking on the banking industry, Mr Bruton said the Government had introduced an effective double tax by introducing a levy on credit cards this year.
"The same is true of their stamp duty on people who move their mortgages."
Mr Bruton said the Government should pay poorer parents of schoolchildren so they could be encouraged to stay at school. Such a scheme would embrace a Government contract with parents who would promise not to take up part-time work.
Mr Bruton said there was something seriously wrong where people were asked to believe that the Government was prudently laying down a foundation for the long term where the future of hundreds of thousands of children was limited by deprivation and educational disadvantage.
The greatest rewards in Irish society went to land speculators instead of those who invest in productive enterprise. "The ingredients which helped to create connected lives and strong families are neglected," he said.
"Young families are forced to find homes far away from their neighbourhoods and place of work, asked to bear exorbitant costs to make up for the failure to invest in infrastructure over many years and obliged to devote a huge slice of their income to childcare costs without any support," he said.
"The Government is adding, on average, 15 per cent to its prices and charges, while businesses and workers trying to compete on the export markets are having to take an 8 per cent cut."