A temprary tax increase for those on higher incomes to help improve the Exchequer finances was called for yesterday by a senior SIPTU official.
Mr Mike Jennings, the union's midlands regional secretary, said the Government had alternatives to the cutbacks announced in last week's Estimates.
In times of much worse economic conditions, governments in the past had imposed temporary and short-term measures such as the 1 per cent health levy and the employment levy, he said.
"Of course it was always the PAYE sector which proved the easy target. So why not a temporary levy of say 1 to 2 per cent tax on all incomes over €100,000 a year? What about a temporary surcharge on excessive profits?"
Mr Jennings, who was addressing a SIPTU regional conference in Waterford, said governments did have choices. "It is possible not to penalise the poor. It is possible to ask those who took the most to pay back - even a little."
There was "deep anger" in the trade union movement at the fact that it was "now obvious that this Government systematically destroyed much of our economy to buy the last election", he said.
In 1997, the Government had inherited a strong, prosperous economy with excellent prospects, now all the talk was of "doom and gloom". This had come about "as a result of incompetence and the adoption of policies which time and again showed a bias in favour of rich people at the expense of building a more equal, sharing society," he claimed.
Mr Jennings asked why it was that, after years of boom, medical cards were denied to people earning less than €200 a week, so many schools were rat-infested and leaking, owning a house was "less possible than ever before" and we had "no decent transport network".
"It is typical of Charlie McCreevy and this Government that they have decided to 'correct the national finances' by attacking the needy and the vulnerable.
"McCreevy has decided to abolish the first-time house buyer's grant - thus making it even more difficult for people to get ownership of even the smallest home.
"And Bertie Ahern has announced unashamedly that the Government is reneging on its election promise to extend the medical card scheme."
