Ibec: Abolishing USC ‘step in wrong direction’

Business group Ibec has weighed into the hot election debate on the universal social charge — saying that “moves to abolish the USC are a step in the wrong direction.”

Its intervention comes at an interesting early stage of the election campaign, as all four main parties have pledged to either reduce the burden of the tax — worth €4bn a year — or scrap it altogether.

Fine Gael yesterday pledged if it were re-elected to bring an end to the tax over a number of years, with Finance Minister Michael Noonan calling the tax a failed final act of the last Fianna Fáil government.