Madam, - Here are some suggestions for the Minister for Finance to consider when he is obliged by circumstances to present a supplementary budget early in the new year in response to the disastrous economic downturn which is still gathering momentum. They should be implemented in the context of a realistic, attainable five-year plan for which the support of the social partners and opposition should be sought.
Given that these are unlikely to acquiesce even though they offer no alternatives other than to strut, whine and oppose, the Government should, for once, show real leadership and forge ahead on the grounds that there is no alternative and early action is crucial. Most people will accept pain provided it is seen to be fairly distributed and there is hope at the end of the tunnel.
The alternative is much higher unemployment, cutbacks, emigration and extreme hardship which will take a decade to unwind.
1. As those who gained most from the Celtic Tiger should pay the most, the income levy percentages should be extended on a sliding scale from 0 per cent for the lowest paid up to, say, 10 per cent for those on the highest incomes. Alternatively, a new higher tax rate should be introduced for those earning more than, say, double the average industrial wage.
2 Given that payroll costs account for half of all public sector expenditure, where salary rates are well ahead of equivalents in the private sector and internationally, the Government should roll back the first benchmarking exercise and plead "inability to pay" other than to the lowest earners under the new national wage agreement. It should only recommence payment of increases once major reforms have been confirmed by An Bord Slash.
3. Taxpayers can no longer be asked to subsidise "gold plated" pensions for politicians and public servants when the value of their own pensions (if they have one) is dropping through the floor. The Government should establish a realistically funded contributory pension scheme in lieu of the present prohibitively expensive and inequitable "pay-as-you-go" arrangement.
5. As a stop-gap, full PRSI should be applied across the public sector and, in recognition that PRSI is income tax in all but name, earnings limits should be removed for all workers in the private sector.
The foregoing measures will arrest the catastrophic deterioration in public finances and enable the new standard VAT rate of 21.5 per cent to be reduced substantially. This will help the lower paid as well as assisting tourism and curtailing cross-Border shopping.
Finally, the Dáil should immediately start sitting for four full days every week for at least 40 weeks a year.
To ensure genuine debate and better decision-making, backbenchers should be pressurised by constituents to exercise greater freedom of expression in Dáil debates, and voting linked to constituents' needs rather than party loyalties should become the norm rather than the exception. - Yours, etc,
BRIAN FLANAGAN,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
A Chara - Today (December 5th) I heard the Tánaiste Mary Coughlan appealing to the Irish public to make sure that every "penny" that is spent in the pre- Christmas spree is spent locally.
Now either Ms Coughlan missed the euro changeover or she doesn't realise that the reason that people are spending pounds and pence north of the Border and not euro in the South is because it boils down to straightforward value and has nothing to do with Brian Lenihan's misguided idea of patriotism (or lack of it).
Further proof, perhaps, that this Government is short on common cents. - Is Mise le Meas,
ADRIAN SMITH,
Ballinamore,
Co Leitrim.