High cost for taxpayer of keeping Greens in 'Emergency' pension and health levies will now be made permanent
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The Greens may still be part of the Government -- but the price of their participation means you will pay more personal taxes, PRSI, water charges, carbon taxes and property taxes.
The initial response to the Renewed Programme for Government (RPG) focused entirely on proposed reforms in education and how politics is funded.
But a closer examination of the document reveals that taxpayers face even higher personal rates of taxation in the wake of the adoption of the new Green Party Programme for Government.
For, hidden in the detail of the RPG, is a proposal to "begin the simplification and ratification of the various levies into the tax system in 2010". This means the health and pension levies introduced by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan as an emergency measure will become a permanent feature of the Irish tax system.
In spite of claims by Fianna Fail and the Greens that both parties favour low taxes on labour, the current marginal rate of tax for workers on the average wage of €38,000 is 51 per cent.
Fine Gael Finance spokesman Richard Bruton has warned that the Green proposals mean "income tax rates could be increased even further". He said "a levy is based on all income whilst taxation is reduced by allowances which taxpayers receive". This means that if the Government is to integrate the current levies into the tax system it is going to have to increase tax rates to receive the same amount of money.
The Green stealth "proposal to increase the tax rate" is only one of a raft of tax increases that will be introduced to fund the Green Party demands for supporting Fianna Fail in government, including a property tax and a plan to "introduce charging for treated water use" which is likely to spark resistance among the public.
Taxpayers are also to be hit by the abolition in the ceiling for the PRSI levy while, in spite of the current pension crisis, the Greens plan to introduce a single "30 per cent rate for tax relief on private pension provision".
Yesterday's result will also be seen as a major political triumph for Taoiseach Brian Cowen -- but it comes at a heavy personal cost to his close ally and Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe.
The decision of the Greens has shredded the political authority of Mr O'Keeffe. The restoration of free fees and a U-turn on education cutbacks may have played a critical role in carrying the Yes vote.
In spite of Green concerns about animal rights activists the meeting was a political triumph for Green leader John Gormley and his negotiating team. It is believed one critical role in the win was the claim by Green delegates that "we have more access to our ministers than Fianna Fail TDs have to their own."'
Though delegates were anxious to claim "we still detest Fianna Fail gombeens", another critical factor in the victory of the apparatchiks was the realisation that there was little point "in destroying the party to make Enda Kenny Taoiseach".
- John drennan
Originally published in
