More regulation of charities, less regulation of landlords
It’s no confidence in the specific minister though, is it not?
Edit: I just see on twitter that The Journal fact checked it and confirmed there is no obligation to call an election in this instance.
1 Like
Yes - your point re charities is clearly connected to the wider problem of attitudes to white collar crime and those in government taking the piss/ turning an eye to complete mismanagement at top levels of civil service / organizations - it’s like the banking crisis and previous high profile chairty cases never happened — it’s clearly endemic in Irish society… but we shouldnt be using / pointing to one to shield the other.
All our issues are largely down piss poor regulation and those in power thinking they can just plough any course they like without repercussion.
Actually in Ireland the evidence shows that we have a hugely progressive system.
People on €25k or less in Ireland pay the second lowest in the OECD, the lowest in the EU.
Those on c. €48k pay the 4th highest. In fact, Ireland is pretty much neck and neck with Sweden there.
1 Like
Also Ireland has a tax to GDP ratio of 22.8%, Sweden’s is 44.2%
Capsule homes are the way forward
Fine Gael TDs who were out in Japan for the rugby have seen this in action, and it works
You can fit 98 people into an average capsule home
Great article to be fair.
Good old Tin Tin, he’ll take the Nevin Institute on board but not the ITI. 
The study that left out a huge chunk of the tax system?
The study that forgot about income transfers?
1 Like
It’s actually a terrible article.
It omits a huge proportion of VAT borne by and small business owners. It focuses on taxes paid on ciagrettes and alcohol. It omits a whole chunk of taxes paid elsewhere by business owners. It has no conception on the real world. For example, Irish bars and restaurants have recently had VAT increased significantly. Have many passed on this to the customer? Without question. But a great many have not. The fact is that business absorb a huge amount of taxes through their margins.
It also forgets the most important thing that makes the Irish system progressive;
2 Likes
Perhaps because his behaviour is the far side of hinky.
“hinky ”??
I’m being careful, as I suspect what he has done is not quite illegal or fraudulent by the strict letter of the law, whatever my personal view on it.
Mcverry was dead right in his letter to draw attention to it.
Franny Fitz was the other Minister who was cast aside during the current Dail term. She was Minister for Justice at the time.
1 Like
Fianna Fáil are very stupid really. They’ll be going into the next election with no leg to stand on over health or housing the two big issues
aye, but not in 2015 when it was written, for what a 400 word piece it gets the point across.
The Income tax system in progressive, the Tax system is not.
Sorry is hinky a word?
1 Like
She was later vindicated.
No but the point stands on any VAT rate. The level passed onto the customer is subject to margins. Conversely, look at the racket that pubs currently have on Zero alcohol drinks. Why does a bottle of Zero alcohol beer nearly cost nearly the same as an alcoholic bottle?
The study was based on 2010 taxes. It left out over half of taxes collected. Who pays those? Who pays DIRT, Corporation Tax etc?
It ignores the fundamentals of the graph posted above.
It is terrible article written by an imbecile with no idea what he is talking about. He parrots the Nevin Institute, an organisation filled with social scientists and ex TASC economists. It doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, like many studies put forward but given free hand in our media.
In terms of whether our tax indirect tax system is more regressive than other countries, the OECD themselves state that the consumption tax burden is not any higher than in European equivalents. We have zero rated VAT, but you will never have true progressive taxes in consumption due to the nature of them.
2 Likes
A minister having a vote of no confidence would not cause an election, it would force the Taoiseach of the day to make a decision on whether to remove the person from the assigned Ministry. It wouldn’t even affect the government numbers in the Dail. Now a vote of no confidence in the Government would lead to an election.
The only way a vote of no confidence in a Minister would lead to an election is if the Taoiseach of the day got into a hump over it and trotted up to the Park to ask the President to devolve the Dail and even then the President can tell the Taoiseach to fuck off and get on with things.