LEO TAX PLEDGE
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LEO Varadkar has promised some relief for middle-income earners in next month’s Budget. The Taoiseach is expected to raise the €32,800 threshold where workers move from paying 20% to 40% tax. Mr Varadkar said: “Where we have scope in the Budget it will be used to reward work and enterprise and will benefit those on middle incomes who pay the highest rates of tax on far too modest incomes. “High taxes on the middle classes are a barrier to opportunity and to work. “They are a cap on aspiration and there should be no cap on aspiration in the Republic we wish to build.” He also said the Government is considering remodelling Nama as a house building agency in a bid to tackle the homelessness crisis. And he insisted ministers are ready to consider all options to hire the best person for the role of Garda Commissioner, which could see a foreign candidate as the new chief of police. The Taoiseach’s comments came as he addressed his first traditional autumn gathering as Fine Gael leader at the Hotel Minella in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, where he set out his priorities for the Dail term ahead. He told his 50 TDS, 19 senators and four MEPS the party is determined to restore morale within the Garda and improve public confidence in the force. He added the party knew what needed to be done and was in the process of doing it. This was the first think-in for the new Fine Gael leader and the Taoiseach and party handlers were keen for him to make an impression. It is also just a week away from Mr Varadkar’s first 100 days in office, a traditional marker where political leaders take stock and critics analyse their progress – or lack of – to date. His comments on tax breaks for the working middle classes are what the Taoiseach is hoping will appeal to most of the voting taxpaying public going into the new Dail term. He also insisted the Government understood the stresses faced by homeless people and families as well as those struggling to buy. Nama is expected to start winding down next year when the vast majority of its debt portfolio will be sold off. But it may not be the end of the agency as Mr Varadkar pointed to the possibility of reinventing the agency as a national house builder. The Taoiseach told party members: “We’re examining the possibility of repurposing Nama to develop lands on behalf of the State, to step in where the private sector has failed.” ”There will be announcements about changes to planning regulations to make it more affordable to build houses and apartments and more affordable for people to buy them.” The Government has pledged to double housing output to 25,000 by 2019 but some analysts believe 50,000 homes a year are necessary to make up the current deficit.