The Government has to sign off on some tax increases, including the possibility of a rise in PRSI, in the final hours of negotiation on Budget 2024, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said on Monday prior to going into final talks.
Sign-off on social welfare and Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman’s budget, and on a number of tax measures, had yet to be secured, he said.
“We need some tax-raising measures. We have to careful to get the balance right. Our economy is at full tilt. We have to protect people from the cost of living impacts but at same time we have to make sure that we maintain sustainable public finances,” he said at the launch of Iarnród Éireann’s new climate plan at lunchtime.
An increase in PRSI was one option being look at, he confirmed. He cited the cost of pension measures including pension age adjustment, “if we don’t also show there is financing to match it”.
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“I’m old enough to remember the 1980s when we got that wrong and indeed the early parts of the Celtic Tiger years when we allowed budget imbalances be developed,” Mr Ryan said. “So part of the responsible thing to do here is raising taxes. And that sort of tax is an example of how we could and should do it.”
Mr Ryan said some energy credits would be provided. “We’ve said all along that we will help people through this high energy price period. We came up with that proposed energy credit system last year. I’m very glad we did ... The numbers of people at risk not paying their bills was edging up to 200,000. Every time we put an energy credit in, it brought people back into a system where they could manage. So there will be a number of those agreed.”
Asked if it will be the same scale as last year, he said “it won’t be that dramatically different to my mind”.
He dismissed suggestions this might be the Government’s last budget before an election. “I think this government should run to March ‘25. I hope, we will be in the next government because this is a decade of change where we have to change everything to meet our climate objectives ... There is a lot more work to do on this climate agenda.”
The Green Party had already done “an incredible amount” in that regard, including a 60 per cent reduction in public transport fares for under-25s, which had a dramatic effect in increasing rail passenger numbers.
In addition to other achievements, the retrofitting budget “is flying” with increases every year because “rising carbon tax revenue goes to people in lowest incomes, poorest houses getting the most to help them cut their bills. And that’s in law, we don’t even need it in the budget. It’s guaranteed.”
Such were the challenges facing Ireland, however, there was a need to go beyond “this annual thinking” [around the budget], where we think five years and 10 years in terms of how do we guarantee the investment to decarbonise our public services. One of the biggest problems we have is our public buildings need to be decarbonised”.
Mr Ryan said he had been asking colleagues is “how can we get certainty on the capital investment”.
One such project, he added, was the possibility of using waste heat from the Poolbeg peninsula to provide decarbonised heat for Pearse Street including its flats, houses and offices, and to decarbonise parts of the city’s Georgian quarter including Fitzwilliam and Merrion Squares.
Short term corporate taxes should be used to fund strategic investment decisions, not just for this year or next year but for the next five and 10 years, he said. “I think that’s the thing I’m going to be negotiating in an hour’s time.”
“The infrastructure fund is going to be the key one; how is that defined? What are the conditions in it and how does this address climate, I think this is going to be one of the most crucial things for us.”
