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Budget 2015
national |
anti-capitalism |
opinion/analysis
Tuesday October 14, 2014 22:34 by fred
A pre election sleight of hand giving out a few pennies to the poor with one hand while taking them back with the other via water charges? Here is some information on some of the changes Lots of the usual media spin on this years budget as ministers discuss it in the chambers. With elections coming up, of course, and a key win for the socialists recently, you would expect that FG would make a few mealy mouth concessions to dampen down anger at the string of austerity budgets that have raised the income of the top earners by around 8% or more while the income of the poor has fallen by about 25% or more in the same period.(CSO report, see here for source )
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Jump To Comment: 3 2 1Fred (spelled with small f) has done us a service by putting the budget in a nutshell. I particularly liked the comment about not even the price of a tin of cat food for a single pensioner's pet. The extra 47 euro for single lads and girls on the dole means nothing for the Christmas holiday. They'd get at least a warm smile from the SVP people.
an alternative take on budget 2015
http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2014/10/14/whats-in-bu...2015/
Just as FG/Lab don't take the plight of ordinary people seriously it's hard to take this budget seriously either.
On education:
Apparently since the hire freeze there has been quite a few retirements as expected of teachers and at the same time the population is growing so these 'new' jobs will just replace the retirements and keep up with growth. If there was extra teachers in the system then the pupil to teacher ratio would fall but many have pointed out it will remain unchanged.
On Taxation the real gain is for those on higher wages. The low paid while gaining a little -about € 100 a year, will of course lose up to €400 - 500 on Water Charges. Those in the middle income 30k to 70k gain roughly what they lose on water charges.
The reduction of the higher tax rate from 41% to 40% was unnecessary as more could have been done to increase the absolute amount for lower paid. The government have been clever enough to increase the USC from 7% to 8% on that portion of salary over 70k. People will have heard Noonan saying he capped the benefit at 70k and this is because the 1% reduction in the higher tax rate is basically swapped back in with this increased USC rate, once you go above 70k.
The key reason for the middle income earners were given most of the benefits is because they are more likely to be FG voters than people on say less than 30k. People on less than 30k to zero are more likely to be Labour, Socalist Party or People Before Profit voters. SF probably straddles both groups.
So if the Noonan had given more to the low pay, then Labour would have had something to crow about and pick up votes on it. Now why would FG hand out money to benefit Labour rather than themselves ?
Water Charges
The government clearly hopes these small concessions can dampen the flames of discontent. From their point of view they don't have to make everyone happen but to just reduce the temperature a little. They will have every intention no matter what they promise to remove all these token concessions in a few years because this is exactly what happened with the Bin Tax waivers and tax credits.
New Investments etc
Clearly the Knowledge Box is another blatant loop hole to replace the 'double Irish'. The government and their lackeys in the Right wing press say that the EU will be examining it, but it just means they will be taking more care to cleverly make it all legal but it will still be providing you can be sure 90% of the giveaway the double Irish was doing before.
Housing
The &euro 2.5 billion for social housing sounds like they care. They don't. This is purely a gift to the land bankers and building industry and while the money will probably generate a good few jobs and put money back in the economy, it is a very thin cover for those groups. What we have not heard is how much these social houses will be sold or rented for? The details are missing completely.