The worst recovery in
history
Michael Noonan flew a not-unexpected kite recently, suggesting that personal taxes
should be reduced. As Cliff Taylor said in the Irish Times,
At a time when much public debate was focussed on the need to
improve public services in areas such as health and boost key
investment in housing, [Noonan said] 'It is
important that in the discourse of the appropriate
amount of tax and spend in our economy, the
views of those who contribute the majority of the
taxation are heard.' (The Irish Times, February
25 th ' 2017).
Who are these people who ‘contribute the majority
of the taxation'? Isn't that just 'us'? Everybody in Ireland
pays taxes—either directly or indirectly. The neo-
Thatcherite shift toward regressive indirect taxation (bin
charges, property taxes, water charges and the like, as
fixed charges) increases the tax rate paid by low-income
earners, while effectively reducing the tax rate paid by
higher earners. 1 That is, the lower your income, the
higher your tax rate.
Michael Noonan
Soon Paschal Donohoe added his voice to Noonan’s (whose job he has his eye
on), writing in the Sunday Independent that ‘The Government must cut tax or it risks
losing jobs to other countries in the wake of Brexit’.
And then Leo Varadkar (who has his eye on Enda Kenny’s job) joined in: ‘Taxes
should be low, simple and fair. High tax rates make it harder to attract skilled,
qualified and talented people home from London and from other countries, and it is
1
A bin charge of, say, €10 per week, on an income of €188 (€9776 per year) is a tax rate of 5.32%. On an income of €1923
per week (€100,000 per year) it’s a tax rate of 0.52%.