Scrapped M50 tolls, 20% corporate tax feature in PBP alternative Budget

People Before Profit have become the latest opposition party to release their Budget wishlist.

Joining Sinn Féin, Labour and Social Democrats in drafting up what they would do if they were handed the exchequer’s chequebook, the party have announced a slate of new taxes and a heavy round of public spending.

The party say they would “double” the delivery of social and affordable homes to 20,000 (social), 4,000 (affordable) and 7,200 (cost rental) a year, and introduce a punitive “use it or lose it” taxes on vacant and derelict buildings and sites.

They also said they would establish a state construction company and increase the renter’s tax credit to €2,000, before implementing rent controls.

Tackling the cost-of-living crisis is a major aim of the party, and they said they would increase the social welfare and pension rates to €300 per week, plus a €50 additional “cost of disability” premium, as well as restoring the pension age at 65.

The Universal Social Charge has become a hot topic for opposition parties in recent weeks, but PBP say they would abolish the rate for those earning under €100,000 and index link tax allowances.

Under their plans, the pension age would be restored to 65, and the M50 and Eastlink tolls would be abolished, along with waste management being taken back into public ownership.

Discussing how they would fund their measures, the party said they would hike corporation tax to 20%, which they claim would bring in €20 billion in revenue, along with a wealth tax on the Top 5% of households which they say would bring in €5.9 billion.

The party repeated their calls to tax Big Tech companies such as Facebook and Google, and use tax revenue from those companies to fund an ad-free RTÉ.

The practice of taxing Big Tech companies was implemented in Spain and France in recent years.

Speaking at the launch of the document, Richard Boyd Barrett TD said “the government has never had so much money at its disposal, yet they say they will not spend it on measures to fully alleviate the cost-of-living crisis, building the needed social and affordable homes or adequately resourcing our public services because they claim it will lead to inflation.”

“We are saying that, in reality, inflation, cost of living hikes, the housing crisis and the other problems facing our society result from profiteering and staggering inequalities in the distribution of wealth.”

“The last two years have seen an acceleration in the transfer of wealth and income from workers, pensioners, students and the less well-off to a small super-wealthy minority.”

He added “if you re-distribute that wealth by properly taxing that small minority at the top of our society, you will have more than enough resources to fund housing, health, childcare and alleviate the pressure of the cost-of-living crisis, without causing inflation.”