Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On Tuesday the financial services firm Grant Thornton issued a report which analysed the last five austerity budgets and looked at the impact these budgets had had on Irish families. Among the findings are that Irish families are now paying, on average, double the amount in tax that they paid in 2008; that when Government cuts are taken into account such as, for example, cuts to child benefit, they are down, on average, €6,000 in disposable income. That is before property tax for a full year and before price inflation, for example, the rise of €500 in annual energy costs, an issue we have just been discussing, are taken into account. Not only do Irish families have a lot less money because of increased prices, that money is not going as far. What is particularly damning is what the report states about the distributional effects, or who is being asked to carry the heaviest burden. What Grant Thornton has found is that a family with an income of €80,000 has seen their tax burden rise by about 50%, but it has also found that a family with an income of half that amount, €40,000, has seen their tax burden rise not by 50% but by 125%. This, Grant Thornton suggests, was due largely to the changes to the universal social charge which was introduced in 2011. A tax partner at Grant Thornton said: "...it’s clear low to middle-income earners have paid a heavier price in terms of the percentage increase in taxes they pay." We have independent expert opinion that the first two budgets of Fine Gael and the Labour Party have, unfortunately, increased the level of inequality in this country.

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