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THE LAUNCH OF Sinn Féin’s pre-Budget submission this week brought with it an avalanche of Fine Gael and Labour press statements poking holes in their numbers and claiming there would be all sorts of terrible consequences if the opposition party’s policies were implemented.
One criticism was that the Sinn Féin proposal for third tax rate of 48 per cent on income over €100,000 would mean that some people would end up with a whopping 73 per cent marginal tax rate when Universal Social Charge (USC) and PRSI are included.
This contrasts with the current 52 per cent top marginal rate of tax which the government has given a firm commitment to reduce in the Budget to be announced next week.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny levelled the ’73 per cent tax’ charge in the Dáil on Wednesday afternoon and then repeated it on Thursday (although he appeared to misspeak on that occasion as he said it would be 78 per cent).
The accusation comes from the work of Fine Gael number crunchers who are taking into consideration not just Sinn Féin’s pre-budget submission this year, but its documents from the past three years where the 48 per cent third rate has been included as part of the budgetary arithmetic on each occasion.
Fine Gael claims this means that if Sinn Féin was in government it would have introduced a third rate of tax at 48 per cent in the first year and then increased it by seven per cent in the following two years in order to continue to make the savings outlined in their budget documents.
“They don’t seem to be aware that you only get the extra revenue the first year after you have introduced such a tax increase,” a Fine Gael spokesperson told us this week when we queried the 73 per cent claim.
To get down to the numbers, Fine Gael’s contention is that the top marginal rate of tax under Sinn Féin would, in the first year, be 48 per cent + 7 per cent Universal Social Charge + 4 per cent PRSI. That equals a 59 per cent marginal rate.
In order to continue making the savings Sinn Féin claims it would have made over the past three years, it would have to add 7 per cent to the top rate in each subsequent year meaning that in year two the top marginal rate would be 66 per cent (48 per cent + an additional 7 per cent + 11 per cent PRSI and USC)
Then in year three, the top income tax rate of 55 per cent would have another 7 per cent added and another 11 per cent in USC and PRSI bringing you to the magic 73 per cent.
So what does Sinn Féin make of this? Well, we asked the party’s deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald at Leinster House yesterday and her response was emphatic:
“That is entire spin and I am sure you’re wise enough to see that.”
She explained: “If your question is do we envisage hiking that new band up by seven percentage points in every subsequent Budget? No, we don’t.”
So how then does the party propose to make the savings it has outlined in its last three pre-Budget documents?
Well, Sinn Féin argues simply that if it were in government it would be pursuing not just the introduction of a third rate of tax, but other revenue raising policies such as its wealth tax proposal, which is not included in its arithmetic because it can’t be costed by the Department of Finance.
In fact there are a number of policies in the Sinn Féin documentation that can’t be costed by the Department which is part of the reason why pre-Budget submissions can often be interpreted in different ways and other parties can poke holes in them.
Put simply, Sinn Féin does not see it’s last three pre-Budget submissions as part of a three-year strategy, whereas Fine Gael and Labour do interpret them this way. This isn’t surprising given the two coalition parties have pursued their own three-year strategy in government since 2011.
This makes it easier for the two government parties to be critical of the opposition’s proposals. After all it’s much easier to have a go when you are in a position to see the impact of your policies, while we have no idea of the economic impact of Sinn Féin’s proposals other than the interpretations of economists who often take differing views.
What would help in all of this debate is if budgetary proposals from opposition and government parties could be independently costed and analysed to determine what kind of impact they would have on the economy.
In the UK there is the much-lauded Institute for Fiscal Studies which frequently analyses economic proposals from the main political parties there and presents an independent assessment of their merit.
Here we have the Fiscal Advisory Council, set up by the current government, but the legislation underpinning its establishment means it is restricted from analysing political parties’ proposals.
In an interview with TheJournal.ie in June, Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said he would welcome independent scrutiny of his party’s proposals.
“If we had an independent unit that would do that on behalf of political parties and independents then I believe that would be of huge benefit to the public debate and discourse that we’re having,” he said.
As the debate over ‘Shinnernomics’ looks set to continue in the run-up to the next general election, such an independent costing unit might be necessary to move beyond the current back-and-forth political debate where parties interpret proposals in different ways to suit their own agenda.
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What’s the point of going to work for 73% tax rate. Stay at home wit a slab of cans instead !
Or a ½ and sell fags on the side
Read the article.
If I could do it all again…Firstly I’d be a girl, get pregnant at 18, get a free house, get all sorts of allowances and freebies so I dont have to work but can still afford holidays, a good christmas and regular nights out.
Instead, I foolishly tried to better myself and I pay insanely high tax rates to sustain these spongey parasitic fu€ks!
Exactly Conor, these Sf idiots would drive this country into the gutter. They can’t even call themselves working class because most of them haven’t worked a day in their lives but would screw everyone else.
Skin i got pregnant at 18 and didnt get a free house. I did however get a string of qualifications and a job i love. Keep your sweeping generalisations to yourself
@Chris the country is already in the gutter in case you haven’t noticed..
IBEC looks busy on here today…
There’s more than enough money going into the Government it’s the money going out is the problem Lads. Cut the waste, mistakes and greed and then you will see real growth.
We are borrowing 8 billion this year.
Which magical waste would you cut? I’d cut health spending as we spend more than almost anyone else but that’s me.
Cut the number of parasites from 166 to 83 for a start and look to cutting that to 42 after 5 years.
David, you would just cut spending on health despite the fact that the health service is already in a bad way? It needs serious reform and savings to be found not just indiscriminately cut spending.
Diarmuid
You were given an opportunity to cut their numbers by sixty just last year and you failed. This Government have also drastically reduced the number of County Councillors in the first ever attempt to make substantial reform in the area of Local and National Government.
On this occasion the failure was on your part so stop whinging.
Capitalism – you have something, I have nothing.
Sinn feinism – you have nothing, I have nothing.
Richard,
Unfortunately I only get one vote so it’s not exactly my fault. And I wasn’t whinging just making a comment about the gob$hite$ that run our country.
David you troll. You are a mouth looking for attention.
For starters industries across the private sector are adopting Lean management and near zero waste policies for the best part of a few decades now. I don’t see why our government can’t look to the work practices of themselves and the public sector to reduce the deficit somewhat.
-We could cut the wages of people in the Senate and Dáil to reflect the fact that they only work in the House of representatives for approx half the year. Let’s face it most don’t even attend on days when they are supposed to be present. It’s waste whatever way you look at it.
-Put in performance allowances for politicians that serve in the House of representatives and tie it into their pensions. If bodies like PAC don’t feel democracy is being upheld by a government they lose pension entitlements.
-Bring in wage reductions for members of the public sector that fail to reduce waste and fail to meet reasonable time/work targets.
-Reduce the HSE budget by cutting the fat wages and pensions of current and former HSE high earners.
-Stop supporting countries in Africa that use our money for to promote views that are repulsive to us like Uganda does.
-Outsource services in facits of the public sector to reduce the cost and liability of the state.
Ultimately though regardless of the measures I outlined it will not plug the gap in the finances. Unlike say forcing Apple, Google, Facebook etc to pay their 12.5 percent tax.
Pól, apologies that you are the man that Im focusing on but Im pure sick to the teeth of the stupidity of some of the claims being made here and the stupid Shinnernomics Im looking at, attempting to make out that they would work, they wouldn’t, the fact is Sinn Fein are still training their representatives on economic policy because they do not have a clear understanding, last March in Kerry for example, the party held a coaching course on economics for its representatives as they dont have a full understanding yet so stop!
Have a look at your own suggestions this time:
-We could cut the wages of people in the Senate and Dáil to reflect the fact that they only work in the House of representatives for approx half the year.
Thats saves in and around €30 Million, maximum.
-Put in performance allowances for politicians that serve in the House of representatives and tie it into their pensions.
Why not cut the pensions entirely, theres around €20 Million saved……. huge money, thats about a eight of relaying the N7……
-Bring in wage reductions for members of the public sector that fail to reduce waste and fail to meet reasonable time/work targets.
Impossible, any attempts of total reform in public sector is a straight up strike, also, impossible to quantify work targets effectively, even a simplified attempt would crumble.
-Reduce the HSE budget by cutting the fat wages and pensions of current and former HSE high earners.
REDUCE THE HSE BUDGET????? Please land on planet earth, yes cut wages top end, yes cut admin but use difference to bring in more staffing in nursing, doctors and consultants……
-Stop supporting countries in Africa that use our money for to promote views that are repulsive to us like Uganda does.
You definitely watched Vincent Browne!!!!!!! The EU is the big enemy there, our country would not even pay 150th of the overall investment in Africa, total rubbish.
-Outsource services in facits of the public sector to reduce the cost and liability of the state.
Outsource public sector jobs???/ Hang on, that was done in Nursing which is ridiculous, there was a suggestion it might happen with Irish Water, nearly world war 3, total rubbish, cost saving??
Ultimately though regardless of the measures I outlined it will not plug the gap in the finances. Unlike say forcing Apple, Google, Facebook etc to pay their 12.5 percent tax.
I genuinely wont even enter that debate.
Even with full 12.5%, you have basically sweet FA.
I read a Sinn Fein pre budget proposal and they actually omitted costing for the HSE!!! and only made a minor difference!!
As a party they are not experienced enough in the area, you have a chap who has not completed his degree in Civil Engineering as the party spokesperson on FINANCE!!! and saying he’s a genius on economics, he has all the answers??? total rubbish.
Bash the government, bash the parties but dont support non sense
I re-mortgaged my house in 2006 on a 25 year term to fund expansion of my business, which turned out to be an ok decision, despite the recession. I have 15 years left on the loan. By the time I pay tax at 52%, and then the loan, (no tax relief on what amounts to a personal loan, but that’s another story), there is very little to show for a 68 hour week, even with a profitable business and a good salary (on paper).
If I had to pay 76% tax, I couldn’t make ends meet, and would end up losing either my house or my business (which employs 14 people btw).
Shame on you for creating jobs and earning a decent living because of the risks you took and the work you put in. You deserve to be punished for it
You would only pay the tax if you earned more than 100k.
The beal bocht doesn’t suit you.
@Paul Fitz. Exactly.
Too many eejits comment on these kind of articles without even reading them. Red thumbs on your contribution is just a way to count morons.
As an employer of 14 people, its not beyond possibility that he would be earning that. ..
Mabe eliminating the “double Irish” tax dodge by big American multinationals will bring you some light relief Jim, and enable politicians to stop throttling to death our own people.?
Hi Jim as a self employed person you should be paying “tax” at 55% ie PAYE 41% + PRSI 4% + USC 10%.
I hope for your sake that the Revenue don’t find out that you are only paying at 52%.
@ Paul Fitz – you missed the point that he is paying back a large mortgage from his salary, a mortgage he took out to expand his business. Paying 21% more tax (on his earnings over 100k) would mean he could not afford the mortgage, therefore he would lose either his home or business.
To clarify, I do earn more than €100k. But I pay tax at 52% marginal. Here’s the thing: because revenue and banks don’t view the loan as a business loan, I repay it AFTER tax. So I began to struggle as the tax rate rose.
When tax rates were lower, I couldn’t get a “risky” business loan, but I HAD to modernise the business. So I did the only thing I could do at the time, and I raised capital by remortgaging the family home which I was raised in. So now business is doing fine, but I hadn’t factored in the extra tax.
If tax goes to 76%, no calculator in the world will make it work, I literally will not have enough “disposable” to eat. And the banks will not extend further credit to fund a tax bill.
So I will have to sell the business
According to the OECD, Ireland’s income tax on high earners is low.
Jim’s example is real life.
At the moment the “high earners” are mainly SME businesses and do not take real life economics into perspective, in fact a large proportion of the people on €100K+ would have mortgages, businesses to look after and would supply jobs, this whole “rich v poor” argument is not a fully thought out one as around 80% of “the rich” are medium and small enterprises, which on one hand we argue “we are suffocating the small and medium businesses, give them a break” and on the other “more taxes to them, they can pay it!!”, there is no logical thought process, I would say, get what we can from bankers, banks and property speculators, continue the jobs plan and as tax income continues steadily, start giving the breaks where they are needed, not just “tax them more and us less” that wont work.
Just to further this, what the likes of Sinn Fein should be fighting for is Mortgage and repossession reform, when the house is taken, the debt is settled as the security and that way people dont have a noose around their neck for life but thats another days argument.
Someone must buy SF a calculator and “economics for dummies”…. The pre-election spew is dangerous and misleading.
You use your fingers when doing shinnernomic calculations
What about Brendan Howlin’s announcement this week.
nobody has asked him to “cost” his statement re returning all public service employees to their former glory before the next election.? (full salaries and pensions again!)
Someone should buy you some reading glasses so you can read the bleeding article before you comment on it.
You should have finished college Mr Doherty
A double college dropout
Or in SF economic speak he left 6 times
Looks like I won’t be able to come home any time soon then!!!
Joining you in that… Given the 15% tax rate currently and since that doesn’t include the 7-10 non-tax resident days out of the country we spend a month. Why would you bother going back only to have the SF pinch more than half your income…
Most talented high earners are mobile… and most companies can base their executive staff out of any of the companies locations and fly them in and out within the limits required to maintain tax status.
Ah sure you just become a resident of Malta. That works for the “richest man in Ireland”.
Afraid not mate, best stay where you are and perhaps when you die someone will send a cheque to bring you home like Paddy Parker.
Sinn Féin aren’t in government, lads
They haven’t been in power yet,the fu(king country is in ruin from ff, fg and labour and yes I know as enda keeps telling us it all ff fault but fg have heaped more taxes on us in two years than any government has done in ten years so to be honest ……..as a person that never voted for sf … I am this time round, if they talk the talk happy days if they don’t then we all know politics in ireland is over, but I really hope not, jesus can’t some fu(king party just do what they say and represent the people in this country from what ever class for a better Ireland. Romantic thinking I know!
SF won’t represent every class. They’re a socialist party that clearly want the people already paying the most tax, to pay more.
I have no issues with higher earners shouldering a larger burden but punishing them for earning more is nothing short of moronic
As with all political rhetoric, pre-election promises and intentions are meaningless and misleading.
“On this evidence, corroborated across other departments, Sinn Fein in the North is not a party of the Left which has reluctantly gone along with policies it finds repugnant, but is a party of the centre-Right. Which of the economic measures it has initiated or implemented in its time in government would be reversed by the Tories under direct rule? Sinn Fein in the South veered to the Left in search of electoral support to lift it into coalition with Fianna Fail. The objective was to win a share of government across the island.
If this meant showing a Left face in the South and taking a Right stance in the North, so be it.”
You’re right, Ciaran. They wont’ represent Maltese residents.
Something which I think is actually quite worrying about Sinn Fein policy is that they seem to constantly want to tax the rich, the wealthy, the high earners…
We have a huge brain-drain from Ireland, with the taxes that people have to pay. We can’t get anything going in terms of enterprise, employment, or anything remotely resembling the light at the end of the tunnel and we have yet another proposal for an increase in taxes which will leave us with no small enterprise, no incentive to generate income and effectively will ensure that the Irish as a nation will simply not bother even trying to grow businesses or innovate because they will effectively be “punished” and taxed disproportionately for doing so.
We had lies from FG before the last election.. no more pain, no more money for bonds and banks etc, and yet all we have seen since they got into government is a series of new taxes, ridiculously presented as charges abd levies.
The country is on its knees .. We need a government with balls.. the ability to protect its citizens and infrastructure – not wildly thrown around figures, taxes, charges and levies..
I for one would love to be able to speak to basically anyone over the next six months who is positive, encouraged and happy with life rather than the constant unhappiness I see all around me ..
Can we used ‘a worked example’. In the middle of the recession hospitals consultants salaries were reduced by about one third between pay cuts and tax rises. This was actually less tha Sinn Fein were advocating. Salary was reduced to about €107,000 per annum. ‘Nobody needs to earn that’ was the cry from the Shinners. You’re not going to get anybody to take those jobs was the reply from the people who actually knew anything.
So where are we now. Last year more than 80% of jobs went unfilled, many received no applications. More recently a consultant job in an Irish teaching hospitals had no Irish applicants and when they eventually appointed an external candidate, they took a job in the Middle East foe 3 times the salary. The Dublin North East area alone has 59 vacancies, the South and west are in far worse States. Up to two thirds of the posts are filled with locums earning 3 to 5 times ‘basic’ salary but needing to take no responsibility. Some public hospitals in Dublin are paying consultants from private hospitals to do clinics. Hospitals in the country may have been irreparably damaged because more than half their medical staff are now locums and nobody is going in to take a permanent job there and earn on third of what everybody else is while taking all of the responsibility. Waiting lists are longer than evercause there’s no one to see them. Sinn Fein plan to solve the problem by cutting income even further. You work out the likely consequences.
SF don’t seem to think proposals will have knock on effects… they see 1,000 salaries of 200k and figure they can increase taxes 7%, resulting in 14mill of tax earnings simple…
SF proposals pretend people won’t leave Ireland to find work, move their companies to new lands or move their roles within companies to London. Not many earners above 200k couldn’t find a way to leave this lovely island because of an possible SF govt.
move to where? higher taxed jurisdictions?
Fantastic illustration on sf policies.
If they ever get into power, hard working people, with mortgages and a third level education will be f&cked. Those who who couldn’t be bothered to work or improve themselves will get numerous social welfare benefits.
The thing that really bugs me about sf is there assumption that every is stupid and if they throw out a populist policy they will get a vote.
Shinnernomics is still better that what the Joe Higgins Party announced during the week as their pre-budget statement.
That stuff was Tolkien level fantasy.
I think that’s true by default
Fair point I suppose.
By default what I leave in the litter tray has more economic acumen than the SP
A party that enforces austerity on its own members, who’s TD’s work for less than the minimum hourly wage is a dangerous party. If this is how they control their own TD’s, just think what they’d do to the rest of us…
O Really! You’re back lying, lying, lying.
It isn’t “less than the minimum hourly wage”, my lying friend. It’s “the average industrial wage”.
So that being the TRUTH, I’m sure you’d be willing to concede that your false premise results in a false declaration.
Sometimes, O Really! , I think you might have a problem with the sauce.
Seamus, when your finished your cheerleading dance, do the maths. Base it on a 70 hour week which is about average for a TD against the allowance of about 32k the TD’s supposedly take from their 90k+ salary.
Is it any wonder then they all feel that the rest of us should be happy with just making ends meet.
Sinn Feinstein aspirations? Everyone equally poor…
Sounds like the major parties r shi tting themselves and are more interested in trying to win points
Sinn Fein not a major party?
Sinn Féin are joint first party with Fine Gael according to the lad test poles.
I hate their proposed wealth tax. Most people have their money tied up in property. A 1% wealth tax on a €200,000 house is obviously €2,000 a year and so on. Businesses would be terrified to invest in Ireland.
Latest poles not lad test poles.
24% Fine Gael, 24% Sinn Féin, 20% Fianna Fáil??
@Jack Bowden
Read the article, their wealth tax is on property over 1 million so obviously there is no tax on your 200,000 house except under fg who want property tax and water tax, anyone you know terrified of these taxes
Hardly anyone owns a house worth more than a million outside Dublin. Even in Dublin they are rare so I don’t think it would raise much. If it was too much it would bring down the value of those houses.
People might divide their houses into 2. You’ll see houses 5a and 5b instead of number 5. That could be a good thing. We need more houses.
If property taxes are meant to raise money for local county councils then councils outside Dublin would get next to nothing from this.
Seems like an unfair Dublin tax to me.
Brilliant well done, may as well get JAD to hold up a cash van. Crap economics to lure voters. Who do you think is going to stay and pay those rates Stalinites. For Christ sake your on the verge of actually doing something to make a difference and Ye come out with crap like this. Bet it won’t affect your eu or local saleries
You should look at the OECD figures of other countries if you think Ireland’s income taxes on high earners are high.
73% tax? SF really have no idea. They think getting richer people to pay tax creates jobs. So dumb.
They also think hiking employer PRSI by 50% creates jobs.
Absolute disaster for any employer, it is expensive enough as it is to take someone on to the payroll, much as we’d all love to grow our companies.
I really must work harder so as I can pay for those who don’t.
Paying 73% tax I might be dead by 50, working myself to the bone, leaving behind a wife and kids.
Sinn fein have no clue how to grow an economy so they just want to cut its throat and collect whatever they can to appease their voter demographic for one glorious year before they collapse the economy.
Perhaps, like the water protestors, I should just refuse to hand over 100k or 200k a year tax and tell everyone they can go phuk themselves ‘on principle’ – I mean why should I pay for someone else’s income out of my own?
You’re paying for Apple’s income and Google’s too. Don’t hear ya wingeing about that, though.
How many people do they employ?
Your comment is Sinn Fein’s economic ignorance in a nutshell.
Pearse really should have progressed beyond Leaving Cert if he is to be the party’s think tank.
No objections as long as they bring in these rates on social welfare/children’s allowances/pensions etc…. to develop a fair and just society.just thinking of the roads we’d be able to build!!!!!
You’re away with fairies, it wouldn’t be spent on roads but rather doled out in social welfare, an over inflated state wages. Emigration of high earns would soar and people would cap their careers at 100k it would be a disaster. Good luck sustaining a high tech economy then
Is a fair and just society; a society that takes away 73% of someone’s money that they have worked for?
Hmmmm, I thought the sarcastic element was obvious. Apologies!!!!!
Ireland has built some motorways where bodhrin’s would be sufficient.
No, but that is not what SF is proposing. Read the bleeding article.
Just the 7% increase on the top rate is enough. Never mind working out what they would’ve had to do to make up the difference over the last 3 years. The top rate of tax is high enough already.
Its amusing to see the FG “shock” at the idea of a 70%+ tax rate when their own 50%+ tax rate is nearly as ridiculous.
They said since they went into government that one of their priorities was to reduce tax rates on workers once it was feasible to do so. Hopefully next week is the first time we’ll see that.
SF on the other hand are consistently saying they will increase the top rate of tax. They also said they would have told the IMF to go home leaving them to bridge a 20 billion spending gap overnight – they said they’d do that using the pension reserve I believe. What would they have done in year two when the pension reserve was gone? would jobs have just magically appeared to make up the difference?
The same day that Enda Kenny said he could not and would not forego the income budgeted for, from the new water tax (estimated 200-300 million) yearly; Brendan Howlin announced that within the next year he would reinstate all the emergency pension and salary deductions brought in in recent times,in order to keep the country afloat.
So the worst paid in the country will be taxed to keep the best paid back on track with full wages and pensions.?
Has anybody asked Mr Howlin about this kind of budget arithmetic.?
You should have a look at the income tax distribution figures in Ireland and what those earning between 40,000 and 100,000 pay in income tax. About 45% of the total take from about 29% of workers. Those earning over 40,000 with no upper limit pay about 85% of total income tax take – for about 35% of total workers.
Jesus it seems if you even try to do well for yourself in this country someone will come and beat you down. Shame on anyone that works hard and earns more than 100k.
OECD figures show that our high earners pay less tax than many other OECD nations.
Now SF is one of the two biggest parties in the south according to the latest opinion poll, we will see many more attacks upon them. The trouble for all the other parties, is they have been in government and they have failed to live up to their pre power promises and commitment in full.
Guess a growing number of younger people are seeking an alternative, however any party seeking to increase taxes on the most wealthy in society to protect the weakest, will be going up against very powerful who control the main media.
As a policies anorak I look forward to the struggle between the new and the old.
Sinn-Fein are nothing but a party of divisionists preying on the weaknesses of the two government parties and the last government. You only have to look at their economic track record in the north to realise that SF are a bunch of wasters and can’t be trusted at any level.
Looked at from a socialist perspective soaking the rich looks fine until you weigh up the consequences for the country,im old enough to remember the damage caused by a previous FG coalition government under Garret Fitzgerald when the higher rate of tax shot up to 72% even for those on the average industrial wage,it created a situtation where so much money flowed out of the country and a huge black market where people avoided paying any tax the government were forced to bring in tax amnestys to try to bring order the the public finances,FG have certainly learned this lesson and for those people that haven’t, believe me you really dont want to go back down that road.
The most important sentence in the article you just (didn’t) read:
“The accusation comes from the work of Fine Gael number crunchers who are taking into consideration not just Sinn Féin’s pre-budget submission this year, but its documents from the past three years where the 48 per cent third rate has been included as part of the budgetary arithmetic on each occasion.”
Remember:
“Vote Europe for Jobs”
“The property tax–it’s just not fair”
Enda Kenny: “I’ll end the scandal of patients on trolleys!” “Increase the Garda force to 14,000″, “25,000 new hospital beds”.
Sure FG is there for ya. Don’t listen to them shinner-nomicks fellas.
It’s a terrible world we live in.
It tis, it tis it tis it tis.
JohnGaghan,look at the government muppets, lots of higher education there but f.uck all intelligence.Do not try to make little of someone for their percieved lack of education Richard Branson Lord Sugar and Michael O’Leary has shown that education is not a substitute for intelligence.You are a disgusting low life government troll go back under your stone muppet! And no I have never voted for SF in my life!
I believe if SF got into power in the republic the first thing they would do is raise TD’s pay. As they make all their TD’s take home the average industrial wage and the rest goes back into party coffers, it would boost their party reserves after a costly (money wise) election.
The exchequer was previously funded by a housing bubble with the connivance of the ff fg Labour pd parties and opponents were ridiculed as killjoys. People need to want to be here and bad expensive housing and lack of imagination in creating new revenue streams need to be addressed. Fancy media digital hubs were people move about on segways and organic farms which specialise in wheatgrass tea are great in their own right but still seen as experimental and fringe instead of the norm. We have a large amount of people who would love to contribute but due to lack of opportunity through education and access to capital are on the sidelines.It’s wasted talent.
Is anyone actually reading the article? the 73% is a FG/Lab fabrication. I wonder how manynof you just read headlines, skip to the comments and spout scutter.
have your say