PRESS RELEASE
14/06/19
- Minister Paschal Donohoe needs to prepare the economy for more difficult times ahead.
- Every man, woman and child in Ireland owes €46,000 in Government debt. We must stop adding to that this year.
- The state requires a radical program of reducing the cost of living in Ireland, most particularly the cost of housing.
- Our CGT rate is an outlier in the OECD at 33%. It must be lowered, and entrepreneurial incentives increased.
- ISME suggests we need a standing public sector pay commission to make regular recommendations on pay trends for the public service.
- Tax discrimination against the self-employed must end.
While the domestic economy remains robust and strong, we are calling on Minister Paschal Donohoe to take precautionary measures against more difficult times ahead. We must start to pay off our national debt, and control our public spending. This will require difficult conversations between the executive and the public service, but these are no longer avoidable.
Our taxation system needs fundamental overhaul. Tax discrimination against the self-employed must end, and workers who currently enter the top tax rate at just 90% of the average industrial wage, must see a raising of the marginal threshold (even if it takes some years to achieve this.) We are too reliant on potentially itinerant foreign multinationals for corporation tax income. So our tax system must start to meaningfully foster indigenous business.
As we face imminent UK exit from the EU, and a weakened sterling, we must reduce the extortionate 23% VAT rate to 21%, or below. Our CGT rate is an outlier in the OECD at 33%. It must be lowered, and entrepreneurial incentives increased. This is likely to lead to an increase in CGT yield for the Exchequer. Commercial rates and local property tax require urgent reform. While infrastructure spending is increasing, we are concerned that the State gets value for money from what it invests in.
The State must invest more of its take from the National Training Fund in employer-led training initiatives, or reduce the employer levy that funds its surplus. Public sector pay reform is required, and ISME suggests we need a standing public sector pay commission to make regular recommendations to government on pay trends for the public service.
The State must stop outsourcing increases in the cost of living to employers via the National Minimum Wage, and instead must commit to a radical program of reducing costs of living in Ireland, most particularly the cost of housing.
Read the Submission in full here
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