No sooner had the ink dried on my weekend masterpiece proposing departmental reform in the Irish state and pointing out the outrageous tax burden imposed on the middle–class, than the Irish Independent reported “Ireland ranked among worst countries for income tax burden on workers.” Shocking!
The Independent reports, “Ireland has been ranked among the worst of developed countries for its personal tax system.” An international think-tank, the Tax Foundation, has rated Ireland 37th out of 38 countries on individual taxes. Do you know what country is at 38? Korea.
The Washington based Tax Foundation found that on individual tax ratings of OECD countries the UK is about middle of the table. And it has a socialised health system. Ireland ranks second to last, after self–described socialist Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Finland and Norway. Even evil Israel is 7th from last.
“Director at Chartered Accountants Ireland Cróna Clohisey said, “The ranking for Ireland in terms of income tax is stark.” She said the challenge for the Government was our reliance on high-income earners for the bulk of our income tax revenues.
“The system currently places a disproportionate tax burden on middle-income earners, with the 40pc tax rate applying at just €44,000 – below the average industrial wage.”
This means the so–called right of centre coalition of FF and FG have been ramping up the tax burden on the middle – class earners while in government. What exactly is the point of them? Can someone please explain to me, slow learning Laura. This is in addition to VAT at a whopping 23%.
We are also told, “Almost 30% of earners in this country pay no income tax or universal social charge (USC). This works out at around one million workers.” Although it is very important to make sure low paid work, pays and certainly pays more than staying on benefits, it does not follow that middle – class earners must get hammered. Also if nearly a million workers are not paying the universal social charge then you want to just rename it the middle–class punishment tax for that’s what it is. It doesn’t sound very universal to me if over 1m workers aren’t paying it.
This is where my new single Department of Finance comes in with the guiding principle being What would Thatcher do? If Thatcher wouldn’t have done it, then it doesn’t get done. Some people in the comments section of that piece got a bit offended there with the use of Thatcher, to which I say, engage your brain.
Thatcher or a similar once in a generation conviction politician is what Ireland requires right now. We desperately need someone who can drive through reform, reduce the size of the state and sees the economic merit and morality in a property owning, middle – class.
(Thatcher gets her make – over in The Iron Lady. I’ll never be one of them, she lamented. Exactly.)
As I explained before, the thing with Thatcher is that she had a vision and she didn’t care what the papers or many in her party said. When she was driving through desperately needed reform in Britain including reducing the power of the unions, reducing the outrageous tax rates some over 80%, and introducing privatisation of State owned industries, a lot of big–wig economists wrote to the Times of London denouncing her policies. It seems leaving the bodies unburied, the bins uncollected and the lights off as they were in the 1979 Winter of Discontent was just the new normal for these economists. She faced them down, she faced them all down declaring: you turn if you want to, the lady’s not for turning.
The thing about Thatcher is that she stood firmly for the middle–class, the daughter of the grocer who lived above the shop. She crawled her way to the top of the Tory party at a time when it was dominated by the toffs, the aristocrats who didn’t care too much for the middle–class and their thrifty ways. They cared even less about the working–class. She brought them all to heel, every last one. We could do with that here.
Can you imagine Simon Harris actually standing up for the interests of those who vote for FG in a similar way? No. Can you imagine him cutting the funding to the outrageous number of NGOs and Fintan O’Toole and rest of the lads were just going to have to suck it up. Of course not. I don’t even know what the Taoiseach stands for other than failure so I can’t be bothered with him. Neither Harris or Martin have any courage or convictions and that’s what irks me the most.
Bleeding the middle–class dry is immoral. The tax burden should be reduced and it does not have to be reduced off the backs of the working–class either. You just have to reduce the vested interests, IPAS centres, the NGOs and the ridiculous number of state bodies that now exist such that nothing gets done.
The latest on the Children’s Hospital fandago is that “the amount of money spent on legal fees, litigation and defending claims by the board of the new national children’s hospital rose sharply from €2 million in 2023 to more than €6 million in 2024.” What nonsense is this?
I’m not here to be popular. I’m just here to tell some brutal truths. You listen if you want to.