A chara, - The Tanaiste, Mary Harney, insists that income tax cuts encourage employment growth. But is further encouragement of jobs "growth" actually desirable? Already we have chronic manpower shortages in several key sectors of the economy. Yet the IDA continues to encourage massive green-field investment by multinational firms, placing further demands on the over-stretched "educated" workforce. In the past, when Irish people needed jobs, there was a good argument for spending money to bring foreign companies to Ireland. This situation no longer applies. We are now spending money attracting companies, along with their staff, to Ireland.
Surely this type of jobs "growth" should be left to seed itself organically. A more productive strategy would be to invest money in developing the skills of the domestic workforce. Would £10 million be better spent attracting yet another American IT company to Dublin, or on literacy, skills training and self-help programmes in Dublin's unemployment-blighted north inner city? Would it be better to invest £100 million in healthcare and health education for the poorest families of the country or give it away in tax cuts to the better off? Would £50 million be better spent on a reliable public transport system, or given away to be spent on new cars?
Tax cuts are not justified by rational analysis of the jobs market, the welfare of the poorest, or our public transport needs. Rather, they have a basis in an ideology that less government (and less taxation) is better. The question we should be asking is: "better for whom?" - Is mise,
Conor Meade, Clontarf, Dublin 3.