Taxation: The Government should have sufficient funds to allow for a significant widening of the tax bands and an increase in tax credits, the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting in Westport was told by a prominent economist yesterday.
Dr Dan McLaughlin, chief economist at the Bank of Ireland told the meeting that the outlook for the Irish economy in the medium term was good and that he did not believe there would be any major slowdown next year.
He predicted growth rates of in the region of 6 per cent for this year and next year for the Irish economy.
He said the two biggest challenges facing the economy were inflation and rising interest rates.
Dr McLaughlin told the meeting that rising interest rates would see a slowdown in house price inflation to about 3 per cent, but he did not foresee any fall in house prices as a result.
He did not foresee any reduction in Government tax revenues, and said the end of the SSIA scheme would free up an additional €600 million for Government spending.
Added to this would be additional tax take from Dirt on maturing SSIA accounts, coupled with additional Vat receipts from consumer spending of SSIA money, he said.
He said one area that could be addressed in the budget related to income tax.
He told the meeting that the tax credit rate had remained virtually unchanged while there had been only one significant widening of tax bands in recent years. This meant that there were now more people paying tax at the top rate than in 2002, and that the Government would have sufficient resources to address this at the next budget if it wanted to.
Another guest speaker, Conor Brady, one of the three members of the Garda Ombudsman Commission, outlined the work under way to have the commission operational early next year.
Mr Brady, a former editor of The Irish Times, said the commission had now begun advertising for staff, including up to 40 investigators and 30 case officers.
It had also received a significant number of applications from abroad for key positions in the commission, including head of investigations.
When fully staffed it will have 105 employees, with offices in Dublin, Longford and Roscrea.
He also told TDs and Senators that the standard for the Garda Síochána should be to provide a universal service in all parts of the country that was fair, accountable and efficient.