TASC Pre-Budget submission Towards an Equality Budget launched today
TASC Pre-Budget submission Towards an Equality Budget was launched today and can be downloaded from here. A TASC Note summarising the proposals is also available here.
According to TASC the proposals are designed to reduce deficit, support jobs and protect low-income groups.
From the press release:
Speaking this afternoon, TASC Director Nat O’Connor said that the narrow focus in previous budgets on government finances, rather than the health of the whole economy, has been economically and socially damaging. Dr O’Connor was speaking at the launch of TASC’s Pre-Budget Submission, Towards an Equality Budget. The independent think-tank is proposing that any savings to public spending should be reinvested in frontline services and welfare, with no overall cuts, but suggests that a further €2 billion can be saved each year from 2012 to 2023 by restructuring the Anglo Irish promissory notes. TASC also proposes using €1.2 billion from the NPRF over each of the next four years to invest in education, skills and infrastructural projects to support jobs. In terms of tax, the think-tank recommends €3 billion in targeted tax measures designed to support economic recovery.
“Since the economic crisis hit, budgets have focused narrowly on the government finances, rather than on the health of the economy as a whole. This approach has been economically and socially damaging.
“Austerity measures to date have been counter-productive, resulting in excessive economic contraction. We should remember that the €6 billion adjustment in the last Budget only reduced our structural deficit by €2.2 billion, according to the IMF”, Dr O’Connor noted.
“TASC is an evidence-based think-tank, and our costed proposals have been developed with the aim of reducing the deficit and supporting jobs.
“Our budget proposals also protect low-income groups. There is now a weight of evidence, including research published by the IMF, showing that inequality played a central role in causing the global crisis. Protecting those on low incomes is not only necessary to promote equality, it is also crucial to boosting demand in the economy and, therefore, jobs.
“The wrong choices have been made in previous Budgets. The new government now has an opportunity to choose a different path in its first Budget - a path that will lead towards sustainable economic recovery while maintaining public services and protecting low incomes”, Dr O’Connor said.
Also speaking at today’s launch, TASC Head of Policy, Sinéad Pentony, said that the forthcoming Budget must protect low-income groups. Ms Pentony pointed out that an analysis by TASC of Budget 2011 has shown that those on lower incomes were proportionately worse affected by Budget measures than those on higher incomes, and she said that an ‘equality audit’ should form part of the annual Budgetary process.
“The measures being proposed by TASC today are designed to protect low income groups and the public services on which they depend.
“TASC’s analysis of Budget 2011 showed that those on lower incomes lost a greater proportion of their incomes due to budget measures than those on higher incomes. This inequity must not be repeated in the forthcoming Budget. TASC hopes that the new Government will consider introducing an ‘equality audit’ as part of the annual Budgetary process.
“Protecting low incomes is not simply an equality issue: it is also crucial to our economic recovery, since only by maintaining and boosting demand in the economy can we grow jobs, increase tax revenues and reduce welfare spending”, Ms. Pentony concluded.
ENDS
We welcome and encourage lively discussion from the public about articles on Irish Left Review. You can leave a comment using the form at the bottom of the page. Please read through the existing comments before posting your own.