Sir, – Chris Johns's "single transferable answer – more spending for me, higher taxes for you" can be applied far beyond his immediate concern with the unsustainability of taxpayer-funded pensions ("State faces stark arithmetic over future of pensions", Business Opinion, January 5th). Since a general election is on the horizon it is probably expecting too much to hope that our politicians might do what is right for the country rather than what is most likely to get them elected. But the vast majority of us who are not politicians would do well to remember that spending increases and tax cuts – the staple of election promises – can be paid for only from one or more of additional taxation, spending cuts or additional borrowing.
The exchequer returns tell us that in 2014 we spent €8.4 billion in excess of our income. Apparently this is great news and is leading to calls – and promises – to restore the cuts made to public sector pay, to reduce or abolish the USC (which, by the way, is no longer “universal”) and to throw the usual additional billion or so at our health “service”. We must hope that print, radio and television journalists will up their game and insist that politicians tell us exactly how their promises are to be paid for. The old reliables of revenue buoyancy and efficiencies in the public sector should be given a very wide berth. – Yours, etc,
PAT O’BRIEN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.