The Society of St. Vincent de Paul points out that 30% of people already in poverty have a job, and states that bringing those below the minimum wage into the tax net through the income levy will only exacerbate this problem.
On the trade union front, both ICTU and Unite focus on jobs. In a statement headlined ‘Harsh Budget does not Deliver on Jobs’, ICTU’s David Begg notes that “protecting jobs, maximising employment and creating new opportunities should have been to the fore in this budget, but the measures were simply not commensurate with the gravity of the problem we face”. Unite’s Regional Secretary, Jimmy Kelly, dismissed yesterday’s Budget as doing nothing to address the underlying crisis of job losses, noting that “each job lost costs €20,000 in lost tax and increased social welfare. It also has a direct negative impact on other jobs”. Yesterday, Sli Eile examined the unemployment backdrop to the Budget.
Finally, CORI has just issued a lengthy and balanced analysis of the Budget, available here. Among a wide range of issues covered, CORI notes that “the Government’s lack of transparency in the Budget documentation is a serious cause for concern. Without the full details of expenditure on issues such as social housing it is not possible to fully evaluate the impact of a Budget”
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