Sir, – Not for the first time in recent weeks, we read reports (“Positive exchequer returns give scope for tax cuts”, Front Page, January 4th) of senior members of the Government making public statements that the cutting of income tax next year is possible.
The prioritising of cutting income tax will do just one thing for certain – it will make an already grossly unfair society more so.
Cutting income tax, under the guise of bringing relief to the “hard-pressed middle”, will in fact benefit only those with taxable income – and thereby the wealthiest too – while leaving those with fixed low incomes to continue with the daily struggle of trying to feed, clothe and heat themselves.
This focus on lowering income tax above all else is being driven by a fiscal ideology that has shown itself to be unsustainable and carries within it the capacity to destroy the cohesion, stability and order in society as it makes the gap in the socio-economic ladder ever wider. While Fine Gael giving primacy to such a policy can hardly come as a surprise to seasoned observers, what the Labour Party is doing facilitating it is truly baffling. – Yours, etc,
JIM O’SULLIVAN,
Rathedmond,
Sligo.