Government under little pressure to hike taxes to pay Covid bills, says Coffey            

Any hiking of taxes would require a return to pre-Covid lows in unemployment levels, which could take until the end of next year, said economist Seamus Coffey. 

UCC economist Seamus Coffey

It will be some time before governments across the eurozone will be under pressure to hike taxes to pay for the huge debt incurred in fighting the Covid-19 health and economic crises, leading economist Seamus Coffey has said. 

The former head of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council said that eurozone economies will need to return to pre-Covid levels of activity and employment before governments could contemplate hiking taxes.