There was an interesting moment on RTÉ news yesterday afternoon, as the broadcaster sought to get reactions to the budget from what we have, in Ireland, come to term “stakeholders”. On a panel, we had representatives of lobbying groups for women, the homeless, and the environment. All three groups are, of course, funded by the taxpayer.
Indeed, it is hard to think of an area of Irish public policy which does not have a taxpayer funded group to lobby the Government in a particular direction. Homelessness has countless such groups. Women’s Rights has the NWCI. Travellers have Pavee Point. The elderly have Age Action. The anti-alcohol people have alcohol action Ireland. Climate Change activists have An Taisce. And so on, and so on, and so on, endlessly. Billions of euro go to such groups every year.
Conspicuously, though, there is no group – none at all – representing the interests of ordinary taxpayers, who pay for the whole thing.
Now, to some extent, that’s because representing the taxpayer is the job of politicians. But that by itself is not an answer, because it is also the job of politicians to represent women, the homeless, travellers, climate activists, and so on. Taxpayers are a larger group than any of them.
And of course, these lobbying groups have an impact. Otherwise, they would not be funded. They all produce pre-budget submissions. They all get meetings with decision makers. They all get access to the media, to make their case to the nation for more funding for their pet cause.
The only people in Ireland who do not get access to the media to advocate for themselves are the taxpayers.
There is no group, for example, pointing out to Government and the media that the Carbon tax hits the poor disproportionately. Or that Irish taxpayers pay some of the highest marginal tax rates in Europe. Or that the impact of increasing cigarette taxes will be to hurt poor families, while doing little enough for public health. Those are issues that simply do not get an airing to the same extent as the National Women’s Council’s call for free childcare, or free contraception, or free something else, after that, since they need to justify their existence by constantly “calling” for something.
Nor are such groups representing taxpayers uncommon. The UK has the Taxpayers Alliance. The United States has Americans for Tax Reform. Australia has the Business Council of Australia. Of course, none of those groups are taxpayer funded, but that’s because all three countries generally do not offer taxpayer funding to lobby groups. Ireland is an outlier in that regard.
But since we do fund all these lobby groups (which is wrong on principle, but that ship has long since sailed), where is the funding for a group representing the people who ultimately pay for everything?
Such a group might stand a chance of injecting a different and important perspective into Irish public life. It is often said that there are no votes for lower taxes in Ireland. Well, part of that is because nobody ever makes the case for lower taxes in Ireland – at least, not since the disbandment of the Progressive Democrats. When that party was around, calling for lower taxes was a common political refrain. When they died, all advocates for that position were wiped off the pitch.
The justification for funding all these lobby groups (collectively: “civil society”) in Ireland is that it fosters a better democracy and ensures representation for under-discussed groups and issues. In that spirit, somebody should form such a group for taxpayers and demand funding for it. It would be funny, if nothing else, to see the justification provided for turning them down.