Invest in people by increasing welfare and cutting tax breaks

When the economic crisis hit in 2008, the budget of the Department of Social Protection was first in the firing line. Bodies such as IBEC went to war on welfare, claiming the budget was €20bn.

The true cost is less than half that. Thirty percent of welfare expenditure returns immediately to the exchequer, in VAT and excise duty. The old-age pension is not a welfare payment: It is a right, and responsibility. The same might be said about rent allowance.

Government budgetary policy is: The poor pay for the sins of the rich. The extension of the contentious property tax to welfare recipients is likely unconstitutional.