Levy fund proposal doesn’t add up

SIPTU’s Jack O’Connor wants a new levy fund to create jobs.

His May Day exhortation to “think outside the box”, as he advocates an additional levy on those earning over €100k per annum, that is intended to yield €1 billion annually, seems to be as cock-eyed and misconceived as SIPTU’s oversight of the obscure levy fund in the secret bank account that was supposedly intended to train frontline supervisors in the heath sector since 1998.

No records were maintained of that income or expenditure. But that State money was discovered to have funded over 30 overseas trips by an unascertainable number of high-level government officials, consultants and trade union officials, often in the company of their spouses and partners; ad hoc donations to various charities and to several trade unions.