MEASURES TO achieve a greater financial return from so-called “tax exiles” and a cut of at least €10 in child benefit are expected to be discussed by Cabinet in a final series of meetings on the budget over the coming fortnight.
There is annoyance among Labour backbenchers at the emergence of the child benefit proposal as an issue over the weekend. The Cabinet will meet tomorrow and Wednesday and possibly later in the week, where the issue is likely to come up for discussion.
Labour sources attributed the focus on the child benefit issue to Fine Gael elements opposed to Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton’s controversial plan for employers to pay the first four weeks of sick pay to their staff.
The Department of Social Protection declined to make any comment on the child benefit issue other than to say: “Nothing is decided until everything is decided.”
However, unofficial sources said it has already been part of the pre-budget discussions at Cabinet and it is listed as one of the options for possible inclusion in the final package.
Anti-poverty campaigners reacted strongly to the proposal and the Director of Social Justice Ireland, Fr Seán Healy said: “There is absolutely no justification for this.
“If Government feels people who are better off should not be receiving this income then it should tax their income rather than the payments to the child,” he added.
Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said on RTÉ that, although no decision had been made on the matter, there were “going to have to be cuts in social welfare”.
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore is to present Cabinet colleagues with a proposal from the Global Irish Economic Forum for the establishment of a body similar to the California-based Koret Foundation, through which the Jewish diaspora promotes economic development in Israel.
Meanwhile, Labour backbench sources said they felt “a degree of alarm” over media reports on the child benefit proposal, adding that it was the first time they had heard it.
Ms Burton had not referred to it during a series of comprehensive pre-budget briefings to Labour colleagues over the last four weeks and backbenchers believe the idea has not originated with the Minister.
As well as reporting on her budget plans to weekly meetings of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Ms Burton has been giving regular 8am briefings to smaller groups of Labour TDs at Leinster House.
An angry backbencher said that, in the wake of last week’s resignation of Minister of State Willie Penrose, party leader Eamon Gilmore was “not in a strong position to get a child benefit cut across the line”.
On the issue of “tax exiles”, Ms Burton had told the MacGill Summer School last July that she would be “watching very closely” the total amount raised from the new levy in this category.
However, it was revealed in The Irish Times last week that only 10 individuals out of almost 6,000 who are domiciled here but declare themselves non-resident for tax purposes paid the levy, which raised the modest total of €1.48m.