Taxation commission member 'stunned' by Varadkar remarks

Micheál Martin said he did not agree with Tánaiste's comment that recommendations were 'out of the Sinn Féin manifesto'

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar suggested that a number of recommendations made by the Commission of Taxation and Welfare were 'straight out of the Sinn Féin manifesto'. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos

A member of the expert group set up by the Government to examine tax has said he is "stunned" and "very disappointed" by Leo Varadkar's remarks on the group's work.

Leo Varadkar suggested that a number of the recommendations made by the Commission of Taxation and Welfare were "straight out of the Sinn Féin manifesto".

An increase in inheritance tax is among 116 recommendations which the commission put forward as a way of widening the tax base in the medium to long term.

However, Mr Varadkar said: “There's no way that's going to happen while Fine Gael is in Government."

Commission member and CEO of the national housing charity Threshold, John-Mark McCafferty said the comments were "very unhelpful" and set a "serious precedent" for how politicians might react to future commissions on other areas such as housing.

"I think the comments were dismissive and think they politicise and I think they were inappropriate," he said, adding that he was "stunned" by the Tánaiste's intervention.

Commission member and CEO of housing charity Threshold, John-Mark McCafferty said Mr Varadkar's comments were 'very unhelpful'. Picture: Julien Behal

The commission was last year asked to take a long-term view of how the tax and welfare system could be changed in this country. Among the recommendations is a tax on highly-processed foods, increases in special Vat rates, as well as an additional child benefit payment for low-income families.

Mr McCafferty said a "lot of deliberation, patience, and pragmatism" went into developing the measures contained in the report.

"It's really important that for wider society when these reports are put together that there is a level of respect, that there is a level of time to digest those reports, and to see them in the context which they have been drawn up and written," he told Newstalk radio.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he did not agree with the comments made by Mr Varadkar and said the commission had put forward longer-term proposals which would move towards fewer taxes on labour and more on consumption and property.

We live in a democracy and people are entitled to have their perspectives. But I think overall, we should look at the entirety of the report. 

"It's a very serious report. It's very comprehensive, it's detailed," Mr Martin said.