ANY PROPOSALS for cuts in social welfare would have to be matched by similar reductions in measures to benefit the wealthy, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has told the MacGill Summer School.
Highlighting tax-based shelters and other measures exploited by the better-off, she said these should be reformed in parallel with welfare programmes.
The welfare budget was open and transparent in terms of the cost of child benefit or State pensions but this was not the case with “hidden subsidies” and tax-shelters used by “the very well-off”.
The Minister said she would also be “watching very closely” to see how much revenue was brought in by the new levy imposed on tax exiles by former finance minister, the late Brian Lenihan.
She stressed that “no individual, group or sector” could be exempt from the sacrifices necessary to overcome the present crisis.
“The social protection budget, large as it is, actually represents just one component of income support. The advantage lies in its transparency. The cost of child benefit or old-age pensions is clearly itemised and is explicitly listed for examination and comment.
“Not so the wide variety of hidden subsidies to housing and pensions, not to mention construction . . . where the public support and subsidy is much less transparent.”
“One other sign I would like to see is this: in October the so-called tax exiles will have to make their first payments of the new levy introduced by the late Brian Lenihan as a way to insist on some degree of transparent tax contribution from this very wealthy group.
“I will be watching very closely the total amount this Lenihan levy will yield.
“There cannot be one set of rules that demand sacrifices from pensioners and children in disadvantaged families while a seriously wealthy elite procrastinate again as to their responsibility to take their fair share of the national burden,” Ms Burton said.
