Decentralisation is a smokescreen that could turn into a time bomb

By Ryle Dwyer FIANNA FÁIL promised that, if they were returned to power, only 20% of workers would be paying the highest rate of tax.

But instead of going down, the percentage has been going up since they returned to power. Last year it went from 27.9% to 30.5% and it is expected to go to 34.4% next year. That’s another promise broken but breaking election promises is no longer news.

Some people have been clamouring for the Government to act on the promise to proceed with the decentralisation that Charlie McCreevy announced in the 1999 Budget. Fianna Fáil first promised decentralisation in the 1960s while Jack Lynch was Taoiseach but the latest announcement was the most far-reaching, though what all of this really had to do with the Budget is anybody’s guess.