Ireland now has the resources to ensure that Budget 2019 addresses the key challenges facing Irish people. The question is whether Government has the political courage to invest in our social infrastructure and give priority to tackling our housing crisis, reforming the healthcare system and addressing rural and regional challenges.
Ireland’s infrastructure in areas such as social housing and rural broadband is not what it should be. Our performance in areas such as child poverty, healthcare, and environmental sustainability leave a great deal to be desired. Budget 2019 is an opportunity for Government to invest in areas that will improve the quality of life for people and communities all over Ireland.
Most Irish people want to see an end to homelessness, hospital waiting lists and child poverty. They want to see increased investment in good quality affordable childcare, rural broadband, and much more. These should be the priority targets of Budget 2019, not the tax cuts being encouraged by some. Budget 2019 has the potential to lift people out of poverty, to deliver a major breakthrough on the supply of social housing, to improve healthcare provision, and to resource communities. Our policy briefing Budget Choices 2019 makes a series of proposals on how to achieve these and much more besides. However much of the Government’s ability to achieve all of this depends on them having the courage to resist the pressure to cut taxes.
Social Justice Ireland’s budget proposals for 2019 are based on the values that have created the most progressive and equal societies in other countries around the world. Social Justice Ireland believes Ireland needs to broaden its tax base and increase its total tax-take from all sources to fund a fairer society. However, it insists that Ireland can do so without becoming a high-tax economy.
We are overrun with crises and infrastructural deficits in this country. Small tax cuts of €2 or €3 per week aren’t much use to people paying record-level rents, facing long hospital waiting lists, or paying the highest childcare costs in Europe. However, pooling those resources and using them to tackle our deficits in these areas can have a significant long-term impact on living standards. Adopting the measures we are proposing, each of which has been fully costed and is accompanied by a proposed funding method, would move Ireland in the direction of becoming a fairer, more equal society.
The full list of our proposals for Budget 2019 can be accessed here.