SINN FÉIN has said it is the only Dáil party opposed to the €3 billion in savings and cutbacks planned for December’s budget.
The party’s finance spokesman Arthur Morgan said yesterday that the party did not subscribe to any aspect of the plan and was opposed to cutbacks.
“It’s not just the Government. FG and Labour also support the slash-and-burn approach of cutting €3 billion,” Mr Morgan said.
He said that other than capping at €100,000 the salaries of all public sector and semi-State employees, Sinn Féin believed that the best way of tackling the financial and jobs crisis was by imposing new wealth taxes and by spending a portion of the National Pension Reserve Fund on job creation.
Sinn Féin did not believe there was a need for cutbacks, Mr Morgan said, other than the salaries of high earners in the public sector. He said the party was focusing instead on new taxes.
The comments were made at the launch of a new youth employment strategy that was unveiled by Mr Morgan and by South Dublin councillor Sean Crowe yesterday. The policy paper proposes an investment of almost €1 billion by the State to get at least 50,000 young people off the dole.
The core proposal is for an investment of €500 million in a youth jobs fund that Sinn Féin says would have the potential to create 20,000 jobs.
The party also wants individualised plans to be made out for every person under 25 on the Live Register.
Other measures proposed include foreign-language training for 2,000 young people; 10,000 new places on Community Enterprise schemes, at a cost of €168 million; and 1,000 places on conversion courses to allow third-level graduates to convert their skills, an initiative that would require a €15 million investment.
It also details eight measures that it has argued would treble the number of under-25s who are self-employed. The measures include a national entrepreneurship programme; better access to credit; and more organised support for start-up companies that have strong potential.
“There are almost 100,000 young people on the Live Register. Many of these people have high educational attainment. We need to get them back to work,” said Mr Morgan.
Mr Crowe said were almost 3,000 people under 25 unemployed in his constituency of Dublin South West.
“The Government is doing nothing for them. It hopes they will emigrate and many have already gone. This is not good enough,” said the Tallaght-based councillor.
Asked how the party would find the funding for an outlay of €1 billion on the initiative, Mr Morgan said they were calling for certain new taxes, as well as taking some funds from the pension reserve.
The party has called for a new tax rate of 48 per cent for those earning over €100,000; the standardisation of all discretionary tax reliefs; as well as a 1 per cent wealth tax on any asset worth more than €1 million that is not the family home or farmland.
“The wealth tax will penalise those who can afford it. [Economic] policy needs to be about jobs, jobs and more jobs. The Government focus to date has been on the banking sector,” Mr Morgan said.