Adequate social welfare payments are required to prevent and address poverty. Without the social welfare system 43.8 per cent of the Irish population would have been living in poverty in 2017. In order to keep pace with earnings growth, social welfare rates should increase by €9 per week in Budget 2020.
Budget 2020 is the ideal time to reform how Ireland does corporate taxation. At present, too many firms get away with paying low effective rates or availing of overly generous subsidies or tax holidays. Our Budget 2020 submission, published in June, contains numerous proposals to improve matters.
Social Justice Ireland is seriously concerned that Government is not planning sufficiently for the changes that Ireland’s ageing population will bring. Over the coming decades there will be a steady increase in older people and people with disabilities accessing services. In Budget 2020, government must take steps to prepare for changes that will arise as Ireland's population profile changes.
Last week the Department of Finance noted that some of Taoiseach Varadkar’s key taxation promises could be “inequitable” and lead to increased benefits for higher earners while middle-income taxpayers lose out. In this article, we present a number of possible situations for comparison. In all cases the income tax reduction policy examined would carry a full year cost of between 1.3% and 1.5% of the total income taxation yield (€299m-€342m). Click here to see which are the fairest options for Government in Budget 2020.
While Ireland faces a number of challenges, it is important to remember that many people in the world face a far worse situation. Budget 2020 should be seen as an opportunity to build on the progress made last year in moving towards the UN-agreed target for overseas aid.
As different policy priorities can be articulated for each Budget, it is useful to bring together their cumulative effect. Here, we assess the cumulative impact of changes to income taxation and welfare over the three Budgets of the current Government (Budget 2017, 2018 and 2019).
Social Justice Ireland makes the case for an increase in core social welfare rates of €9 per week for single people in Budget 2020 to ensure the welfare benchmark is maintained at the Pre-Budget Forum in Dublin Castle.
Investment in Children and Families is an essential investment in our social and human capital now and into the future. Our Budget 2020 submission contains a number of costed proposals in this area.
To achieve the objectives of providing adequate and appropriate accommodation in sufficient numbers, reducing social housing waiting lists and eliminating homelessness, Government must pursue the following four proposals in Budget 2020.
It is widely acknowledged that the availability of credit, coupled with ‘light touch’ financial regulation and Government policy contributed to the housing boom and bust which saw spiralling mortgage arrears, social housing waiting lists and homelessness. Why then, are we so eager to recreate the mistakes of the past?
