Sinn Féin would more than quadruple the bank levy in Government, taking in €400 million from Irish lenders, according to the party’s alternative budget.
Launching the budget in Dublin on Wednesday, Sinn Féin promised to ramp up housing, cut household costs and increase taxes on higher earners, including ending tax relief on pensioners earning more than €50,000 a year from their “gold-plated” pension pots – where that is classified as a pension pot worth more than €1.5 million.
Under the alternative budget Sinn Féin say they would take in €400 million in an increased and expanded bank levy, compared to the €87 million the State took in last year – and an increase of €250 million compared to the party’s own alternative budget last year.
Sinn Féin is also promising to take in €308 million from a €400 second-property charge, an increase of €216 million from last year’s figure. However, the party has dropped a precise figure from what it expects to earn from a wealth tax at a rate of 1 per cent on net wealth above €1 million.
While the party’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said Sinn Féin remained committed to the wealth tax he argued that it was too complex to extrapolate the income arising from it as the relevant data was outdated – and the party would establish a commission in Government to examine the issue.
He said the current levels of bank profitability – which he predicted to be over €5 billion this year – would justify the increased bank levy.
A “solidarity tax” of 3 per cent on incomes over €140,000 would net an additional €386 million.
Launching the alternative budget, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that the strength of the public finances meant there was capacity to spend more and “make a difference that really lasts”.
“Fairness is a choice. Progress is a choice. Delivery is a choice,” she said. “In this budget Sinn Féin chooses to deliver the homes people need, chooses to resource and invest in our health service so that people get the care and treatment they deserve, chooses to meet the climate challenge with ambition and determination.”
The party is promising mortgage interest relief that would absorb 30 per cent of the increased interest costs facing borrowers on their primary homes, at a cost of €300 million, and the equivalent of a month’s rent back for tenants at €200 million – alongside a three-year ban on rent increases.
It says it would cut childcare fees for parents by two-thirds from 2022 levels, costing just over €200 million a year, and increase the monthly rate of child benefit by €10, costing just under €150 million.
Pensions would go up by €10 or €15 for those living alone, with working-age weekly social welfare payments going up €15, disability-related payment up by €20 and increases for qualified children of €10 for over-12s and €5 for under-12s, costing €1.15 billion.
Overall the party’s alternative budget sketches out a budget day package of €6.8 billion, with tax cuts worth €1.9 billion and noncore temporary measures of €4.3 billion – as well as a cost of living package of €1.35 billion. Tax revenues would increase by €1 billion, with a capital increase of €1.44 billion in voted expenditure for a programme of 21,000 social and affordable homes.
On health the party is promising new spending of €700 million, including €250 million on “reducing the cost of healthcare for workers and families” and €162 million on increasing hospital capacity.
It would cut the first rate of USC from 0.5 per cent to nothing, the second rate from 2 per cent to 1 per cent, increase the entry point to the third rate to €25,959 and increase earned income tax credits by €50.
Sinn Féin says it would drop the planned increase in the carbon tax, saving €141 million, and put a pollution tax on private jet departures earning €20 million. Employer’s PRSI on salaries of more than €100,000 would be levied at 13.05 per cent, taking in an additional €169 million. It is promising to ditch the concrete blocks levy, costing €32 million
