Siptu urges rethink on household charge
Siptu, which represents 200,000 workers, urged ministers to suspend the €100 charge because it hits the poorest hardest.
Meanwhile, in Boston, Taoiseach Enda Kenny defended the charge.
“Everybody in our country has got to contribute, in one way or the other, to the situation that has to be rectified here. Our public financial problem will not sort itself out, and everybody has got to contribute in some fashion or other to this.”
Siptu’s ruling executive warned wealthy home owners were being subsidised by some of the most vulnerable families in the country. “The household charge is a flat tax which is unfair and regressive in that it subsidises wealthy people at the expense of middle and low income families.
“We support the principle of a fair and progressive property tax which is proportionate and which recognises that wealthy households can afford to pay more than those with modest earnings while those on lower incomes should be exempt,” a spokesperson said.
President Jack O’Connor said he “sceptical” of plans to bring in a fairer system, but insisted he was not calling for people to not pay.
The Government, which expects to take in €160m from the tax this year, claimed it was a temporary measure until a more equitable levy would be brought in next year.
Ahead of the March 31 deadline, some 97,000 households have registered for the charge, the environment department said.
Siptu warned the charge as it stood “plays into the hands of those wealthy interests that have successfully resisted the introduction of a fair property tax in the past, most notably in their campaign against the residential property tax in the 1990s”.
The union said suspension of unused section 23 property tax relief and accelerated capital allowances would raise €100m instead of the charge.
“Restricting landlord mortgage interest relief for both residential and non-residential properties by 10% would bring in an estimated €75m, which together with the suspension of the unused tax reliefs would more than offset the loss of €160m in additional tax revenues from the household charge, saving the exchequer up to €175m,” the union said.
The stance was backed by the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes.
Defending the tax, a Government spokesperson insisted it was “temporary” and would be followed by a more progressive and fairer charge, but the state was “required to address the gap in the nation’s finances”.
