Union official urges tax hike to fund services

A CALL for higher taxes to fund improved public services was made by a leading official of the country’s largest public sector union, yesterday.

The 52,000-member IMPACT also sent out a demand for a second benchmarking deal to be included in the forthcoming pay talks.

Under the previous benchmarking, more than 200,000 state employees received pay increases of between 3% and 25%.

IMPACT general secretary Peter McLoone said health services, education, housing and infrastructure would remain inadequate if business and personal taxation remained consistently low over long periods.

He said the link between public services, infrastructure and taxation had become ‘disconnected’ in people’s minds.

He told the IMPACT conference, in Tralee, Co Kerry, that Ireland’s business and personal taxes were now the lowest in Europe.

Mr McLoone also warned that an inadequate tax take would hit standards of living as individual families would be forced to pay for health, housing, education and other services that the State failed to provide.

“Those who can afford health, education and housing will find more and more of their household budget going to pay for services that the state should provide. Those who can’t afford it will simply go without,” he claimed.

With national pay talks due to get underway next week, Mr McLoone set out his union’s position and called for basic increases for all workers that at least matched inflation.

He maintained that the Sustaining Progress agreement committed the Government to discussing another benchmarking exercise.

Meanwhile, IMPACT has not ruled out industrial action over controversial plans to relocate over 10,300 civil servants, if they are forcibly moved to places to which they don’t wish to go.