Greens to push for super tax on high earners
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THE Green Party will be seeking the introduction of a "super tax" on incomes over €100,000 in the emergency budget negotiations, it emerged yesterday.
The super tax, or third PAYE rate, could be as high as 48pc, but no definitive figure has been set by the Green Party as it heads into three weeks of intense budget negotiations with its coalition partners, Fianna Fáil.
Party chairman and economic spokesman Dan Boyle told the Irish Independent that the rate would be determined after an examination of all the tax bands.
Tax reliefs, pension levies and income levies will also be looked at, as will how tax changes would affect those on different income levels.
"The size of the gap that has to be filled is large in its own right. The mechanism that is going to have to be used to fill that will in the short term be new taxation measures," Mr Boyle said yesterday at the conclusion of the Green Party's conference in Wexford.
"The type of taxation measures that we will be seeking will be putting a particular emphasis on the need to get a new super tax rate, a third tax rate on incomes over €100,000.
"There's going to be a series of detailed meetings about the nature of what the tax shortfall is and the nature of public expenditure."
The party chairman added that "very hard" decisions would be taken in the coming weeks.
The Government must either bring the level of taxes up to the level of spending or bring the spending down to the level of taxes being received.
Asked about the 'red line' issues for the Green Party, Minister for Communications and Energy Eamon Ryan said the party would work to protect education spending as it had been one of the most sensitive issues last time out.
Stressed
However, the minister stressed that the Government would not be starting from a position of excluding any department or budget.
While the Greens want to ensure that the most vulnerable are protected, Mr Ryan conceded that 80pc of the Government's spending was in the areas of health, education and social welfare.
"I don't think we should be prescriptive. I think we have to concentrate first on the revenue raising side, rather than the cost cutting side," he said.
However, the minister said it was his "absolute utter determination and conviction" that money should go towards public transport, in particular future projects such as Metro North.
- Aine Kerr, Political Correspondent
