Levy fund proposal doesn’t add up
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.
To this day there is no evidence of the value of all the trips undertaken, except that “they seem to have been comprehensive and worthwhile”.
It is therefore surprising that SIPTU has such an appetite for more levy funds so soon after the controversy of this debacle and the absence of basic standards of governance, transparency and accountability in relation to the spending of taxpayers’ money.
Those earning over €100k paid income tax of €5.79 billion in 2008, equivalent to an effective income tax rate of approximately 25%.
This compares to an overall effective income tax rate of less than 14% on the income of €90.8 billion declared by the general body of taxpayers that year.
The tiered levy envisaged by O’Connor would therefore, at best, yield less than €600 million based on the latest available data. The credibility of his proposals might be enhanced were he to undertake some superficial research in the first instance before he steps onto the podium of inspiration.
Would that not be “a better, fairer way”, to use his own much-vaunted expression?
Myles Duffy
Glenageary
Co Dublin
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