OPINION:The budget should chart the way to a fairer society, writes FR SEÁN HEALY
A FAIRER future is possible and Budget 2011 can take some key steps towards such a future. This can be done while reducing the borrowing requirement in 2011 by €3 billion which is the target that was set for 2011 by Government in last year's budget. In its policy briefing entitled A Fairer Future is Possible, Social Justice Ireland set out a fully-costed budget which would reduce borrowing by €3 billion in 2011 while supporting the economy and protecting those who are poor and/or vulnerable. Its key proposals are:
Standard rate the tax-break for pension contributions;
- Address the working poor issue by making tax credits refundable;
- Introduce a part-time job opportunities programme that would produce real part-time jobs for 100,000 unemployed people on a voluntary basis, using social welfare payments principally to fund this programme;
- Introduce an income-contingent loan facility which would enable all third-level students borrow money to pay fees and cover their living costs;
- Increase funding for primary level education and adult literacy programmes;
- Provide substantial support for developing an integrated healthcare model through supporting primary care teams, older people and children and family programmes;
- Increase all social welfare rates by €5 a week;
- Introduce a levy on corporate sector profits of 2.5 per cent;
- Move towards meeting the UN target for Ireland’s Third World Aid budget;
- Make necessary cuts in a range of areas while protecting the vulnerable.
Taken together these proposals would introduce some tax reform; ensure progressive redistribution; produce a fairer sharing of the burden; protect the vulnerable; address the working poor issue; produce real part-time jobs for 100,000 unemployed people; provide a stimulus package of more than €1.1 billion to add to the capital and other expenditure already planned by Government; make progress towards a better healthcare system; produce greater equity in the education system; move towards attaining the UN target for supporting the world’s poorest people; ensure the corporate sector would also make some contribution towards rectifying Ireland’s current situation and finally reduce borrowing by €3 billion in 2011.
These proposals provide an integrated, coherent approach to building a fairer future that is both achievable and desirable. They are fiscally responsible. They protect the living standards of Ireland’s poorest and most vulnerable people while providing some additional stimulus to the economy. They also seek to develop greater fairness in the tax system and in Ireland’s response to its present series of crises.
In passing it should be pointed out that Social Justice Ireland proposed a tax of one third of one cent be put on each text message.
The scale of the various crises (banking, public finance, economic, social and reputational) facing Ireland today is dramatic. They imply a period of recovery, one that will take a number of years. The nature of that recovery has both international and national aspects. While the former is out of our control, decisions regarding our national policy responses to these crises will need to be considered and taken over the next few months and years. These national decisions should be framed in the context of one central question: Where does Ireland, and Irish society, want to be in 10 years?
There is need for a guiding vision that charts the future direction and shape of Irish society; one that takes a long-term perspective and implements policy to achieve this. The answer should be built on the core values of human dignity, sustainability, equality, human rights and the common good. That means that the core vision to guide policy should see Ireland as a country where: everyone has what is required to live with dignity; sustainability (economic, social and environmental) is a central motif in policy development; equality and a rights-based approach are at the core of public policy; international economic competitiveness is developed and sustained; and the common good is a constant goal of policy development.
Budget 2011 offers Government an appropriate opportunity to move towards such a future by taking the initiatives proposed by Social Justice Ireland.
In recent days it has been suggested by Government and in the media that Budget 2011 should reduce the borrowing requirement by around €4 billion rather than €3 billion. This would seriously damage Ireland’s economy and social cohesion. If avoiding such an outcome means extending beyond 2014 the target date for reducing borrowing, then that should be done.
Why 3 per cent and why 2014? The 3 per cent target is not based on any objective analysis. Likewise the target date of 2014.
This is not to reject the need for major readjustment in the years immediately ahead. But it is essential that the adjustment be done in a manner that is seen to be fair and is based on a strategy to ensure that the economy and social cohesion are not seriously damaged in the process.
It is not acceptable that poor people and those who are vulnerable should be sacrificed to achieve an arbitrary economic target that has no analytical basis.
Fr Seán Healy is director of Social Justice Ireland, an organisation that seeks to promote the values of both human dignity and the centrality of the community. Its budget submission may be read in full at socialjustice.ie