McCreevy proves to be perfect pickpocket

CHARLIE MCCREEVY took an extra 1.1 billion out of the pockets of workers on Wednesday and, like the best pick pockets, he seems to have got away with it.

But he did worse, far worse and broke all kinds of promises in the process. The beauty of stealth taxes is most people don't notice their pockets being picked. But when they go to buy something they realise the money they thought they had is gone. By doing nothing, Charlie McCreevy allowed an extra 71,000 hard-pressed taxpayers slip from paying tax at 20% to paying tax at 42% by virtue of their hard won pay increases. In the Government's national pay contract with workers, Sustaining Progress, the proposed state of play on top taxpayers is stated on page 39: "To the extent that there is any scope for personal tax reductions, progress will continue to be made over the three budgets contained within the lifetime of this agreement towards removing those on the minimum wage from the tax net, moving towards the target where 80% of all earners pay tax at not more than the standard rate."

Great stuff, but it is fiction masquerading as fact.