The Green Party has called on the Government to suspend its annual € 1 billion contribution to the National Pension Reserve Fund for one year and to borrow more in order to pay for badly needed infrastructure. Mark Brennock reports.
In a pre-budget submission, the party has also called for the long-awaited introduction of carbon taxes, a higher top income tax rate of 45 per cent for income over € 100,000 a year and a reversal of recently announced cuts in eligibility for social welfare.
The party's finance spokesman, Mr Dan Boyle, said yesterday that while the Government puts itself forward as the champion of low income taxes, it was imposing a range of stealth taxes on people.
"Instead of ensuring that the wealthy in our society pay fair and proportionate taxes, the Government insists on levying an array of disproportionate and unfair taxes," he said.
The Finance Bill should include provisions clarifying the issue of tax residency so that all income earned in Ireland would be taxed here, he said.
Tax bands and credits should also be index-linked to end the practice of not adjusting them for inflation, "the ultimate stealth tax".
Advocating the introduction of energy taxes, Mr Eamon Ryan, transport spokesman, called for a switch from tax on labour to tax on resource use with revenues raised used to lower VAT and employers' PRSI, and increase social welfare payments.