Sir, What is the obsession with tax cuts among the main parties competing in the general election? What is the sudden conversion to the mean, streamlined state where the mantra is that people should pay less tax? Has the "Celtic Tiger" claptrap blurred our political thinking? What is the justification for this tax giveaway? On economic and social grounds there is none.
Currently the Irish economy is undergoing an unprecedented phase of growth, achieving the highest growth rates in Europe, with interest rates and inflation at record lows. Unemployment is decreasing. Foreign direct investment is at an alltime high. Emigrants are returning. A general air of confidence pervades the economy. We have never being doing better and this is very welcome compared to the bleak days of the 1980s. However, does this provide a justification for a tax giveaway?
Economically, there is no justification for tax cuts in an already buoyant economy. Real average incomes are increasing, consumer spending is at an alltime high, houses are achieving record prices and car sales are burgeoning (just witness the awful traffic congestion). Do we want to replicate the unsustainable consumer boom and repeat the mistakes of Lawson's Britain in the late 1980s? We are already suffering inflationary pressures due to the weak value of the punt/sterling exchange rate. Do we want to further exacerbate inflation by tax cuts which will further undermine our competitive position? Are we ready to face the high interest rate consequences of trying to control inflation? Also, low inflation is one of the Maastricht criteria to enable countries to qualify for the single currency. Do we want to put this in jeopardy through short term electioneering?
People have duties to the state they live in, from paying taxes to actively seeking work, thereby playing their part in society. In any decent society there has to be some level of redistribution from the better off to the less well off. People have a duty to pay tax if they want to live in a fair and decent society. If we want good education and health services these have to be paid for through tax. If we want an adequately funded social welfare system for the less well off in our society this has to be paid for through tax. If we want to look after the increasing number of homeless on the streets of Dublin this has to be paid for through tax. I, for one, am willing to pay my fair proportion and I believe society should as well. Yours, etc..
St Francis Square,
Dublin 8.