Former Fine Gael Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Paudie Coffey
“Fine Gael wants to make work pay; we are committed to implement policies, initiatives and plans to increase the number of people at work by 200,000 by 2020. This will allow us to firstly reduce and then abolish Fianna Fail’s hated USC tax.
“Amazingly all other political parties want to retain the USC; only Fine Gael wants it gone. If you decide to vote for Fine Gael we will abolish the tax. This will mean that the effective rate of tax on income will reduce from 52% down to 44%; this will encourage people to take up jobs in the economy and attract investment into Ireland.”
Then Fine Gael junior Miniser Paudie Coffey, 2016
Universal Social Charge is Unfair; Fine Gael will Abolish it – Minister Coffey (Fine Gael. 2016)
Meanwhile…
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe
This morning.
Via Irish Times:
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has said that the Universal Social Charge (USC) cannot be abolished.
On Newstalk’s Breakfast show, Mr Donohoe denied that the charge had been introduced as a temporary measure.
“I never said it was temporary. It was the integration of two levies. The USC will remain an important part of our tax system,” he said.
The charge could not be removed because if that was done it would have to be explained where else to generate the money it collects every year, he added.
Good times.
Universal Social Charge cannot be abolished, says Donohoe (Irish Times)
Thanks Maura
what a pack of ladypartz.
…don’t you remember?
We all Partzied! :-)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tX55HEX0hb0
why do I think job path or whatever it was called will be back on steroids
ironically enough, the USC is the only fair tax in my opinion, everyone pays an percentage based on their income, no deductions, expenses or allowances.
And if they were to scrap it, there would be complaints of along the lines of :”so you’re giving high earners much more money back in their pockets than lower paid workers?!” etc.
Would there be complaints along those lines, Col, really? Must keep it in place, then, wouldn’t like complaints, eh?
https://www.independent.ie/business/budget/news/timeline-irelands-most-hated-tax-here-is-the-history-of-the-universal-social-charge-31605463.html
Brian Lenihan introduced the USC as a “temporary measure” in Budget 2010. You can watch it all here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LAehxdXMUY
But in 2014, Michael Noonan confirmed that the USC will be in place for the “foreseeable future” because it generates a lot of cash for the state.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVKtyexwCs
Of course, it doesn’t just “generate” that cash, it actually takes it from people’s wages. Still, at least that’s less money to be shelled out on rent to go into the deep pockets of Paul Singer & his “ilk”, who run the US Vulture Funds that have been jostling with the State for a place from which to feast on the carcass of our economy.
Bertie bought the Civil Servants’ votes with his fake “Benchmarking” scam, back in the day, now the Civil Service is the place where passing your Leaving Cert can have you, eventually, on 60k or thereabouts, while a degree in computers will earn you 30k, if you’re lucky, out in the real world.
Thankfully, our politicians are included in all those pay rises & that’s where the big bucks go, these days, as our Civil Service is rather long in the tooth, so has been filling up with higher grades & wage rates, achieved by staying put & clocking up the years.
As a Civil Servant friend said to me, while I was “exploring options” having lost my job in the Financial Crash of 2007, “sure, the Civil Service is the only game in town”.
What is wrong with us ? If we were french, large parts of the country would be on fire by now.
All we ever do is debate the minutae, meanwhile to clock ticks on, as do the massive salaries.