PARTIES ADVOCATING the least cuts in public expenditure believed in high taxes, Fine Gael finance spokesman Michael Noonan told the Dáil.
“We are not a high-tax party, and we oppose this,” he said.
Fine Gael, he said, was not saying on a whim that adjustments should be made principally through cuts in public expenditure.
“It is because the alternative is to implement higher taxes, taxing people out of employment and creating more unemployment,” he added.
Mr Noonan said that if the Government had done more to cut expenditure, it would not have been obliged to cut the pensions of the blind, the widows and the disabled.
Referring to Ireland’s EU-IMF bailout, Mr Noonan asked if Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan was aware that an IMF team was in Spain a fortnight ago to negotiate a low line of credit, which was in its remit.
Mr Noonan said it was a principle of capitalism that the rules of moral hazard applied to both borrowers and lenders.
“Those who lent recklessly and those who borrowed recklessly should share the burden,” he added. “At present, the only person sharing the burden is the Irish taxpayer.”
Labour spokeswoman Joan Burton said the Finance Bill’s weakness was its inherent imbalance and unfairness at its heart.
There was no target, she added, for what those fortunately wealthy people should contribute to the tax base in Ireland’s hour of need.
“If we all make a contribution, we can keep the contributions and tax rates moderate and modest,” she added.
By contrast with the changes to the tax code relating to tax exiles, and the phasing out of the property-based tax reliefs, the universal social charge hit pay slips from January 1st, said Ms Burton.
Sinn Féin spokesman Pearse Doherty said the House was not discussing a Finance Bill.
“It is a depressing end-product of a Government whose political career spans some of the most disastrous economic policies ever witnessed, not only in this State but throughout the world,” he added.
Independent TD Finian McGrath rounded on Labour’s Róisín Shortall, claiming that she had referred to the Dáil’s Independent TDs as a “rag-bag”.
The remark, he said, was “offensive and degrading, and insults the vast majority of Independent deputies, councillors and candidates who are trying to serve our people and our country”.
