Budget 2022: €10 a week increase in State pension sought by Aontú

Aontú has called for a €10 per week increase in the State pension in its pre-budget submission, beginning as of next year.

The party said the pension should be retained from age 66, while an auto-enrolment pension scheme, which would require all employers to automatically enrol staff into a pension scheme, should be established in 2022.

Aontú's submission was published on Saturday ahead of Budget 2022 on Tuesday. The party said it would increase Garda numbers to 16,500 personnel, invest in drug rehabilitation and detox services, and ensure funding is allocated for mandatory body cameras for all frontline gardaí.

It said the banking levy should be extended and increased to ensure a €250 million return per annum.

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The party also called for the imposition of a digital sales and services tax “to ensure those benefiting from these unprecedented times can contribute to society’s benefit” – which would be a 3 per cent levy on all digital services and sales that are offered in the country.

"Ireland is increasingly divided, with every passing day," Aontú's submission says.

“It is divided by how much you earn, by where you live, whether you live in Dublin or in the rest of country, whether you have public healthcare or private healthcare, whether you have a disability or not, whether you rent or own your own home.

“The Ireland of today is not just divided by partition, but by region, income and background. The cost of living and social inequality in this country is dictating the quality of life you can live here.

“This division is the result of the fact that none of the crises of the past decade have been resolved. If you measure Ireland in terms of the cost and availability of housing, health waiting lists, spatial imbalance leading to a commuter hell, the extortionate cost of living etc, these are worse than 10 years ago.”

The party said its submission focused on “the work of repairing our society and repairing the damage done by too many governments”.

A provisional allocation of €90 million is included in the document “to reduce Leap Card fares and ticket prices for inter-county travel”.

It also sets out the creation of a remote working hub programme, which would establish 150 working hubs outside of Dublin by 2024 at a cost of €100 million.