A need to fully mobilise budget and monetary resources is our State’s key issue

The pandemic has highlighted the essential nature of services and people, writes Sean Healy

‘Ireland needs to replace the current Local Property Tax with a Site Value Tax, and reinstate the windfall gains tax’

WE are at an unprecedented moment in our State’s history. The Covid-19 pandemic has given us all cause to reflect on how society functions, on how it has been structured, and on who benefits from the status quo.

It has also served to highlight some of the superfluous, the irrelevant, and occasionally the absurdity of detail in how we live our daily lives. Similarly, the pandemic has highlighted the absolutely essential nature of services and people previously taken for granted.

This has all presented us with a once-in-a-generation opportunity — the chance to build a new society, a new economy and a new country that reflects the lessons we have learned in recent weeks.

The decision by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to put a new social contract and a focus on the wellbeing of Irish people at the heart of their Framework for a New Programme for Government is very welcome. So, too, is their assertion that there is no going back to the old way of doing things.

The framework’s stated aim of achieving a living wage over the lifetime of the next Government is warmly welcomed.

However, the failure of the framework document to acknowledge the scale of poverty in Ireland today, or to recognise that living a life free from poverty should form part of any new social contract is deeply disappointing. So, too, is the failure to address inequality on the scale required.

The framework, however, is not the Programme for Government. It’s the concrete proposals that are included in the final document that will decide its impact.

The fact that the framework recognises the need for new, credible, quality-of-life measures of individual and societal wellbeing and progress, suggest that the next Programme for Government will go beyond economic priorities and targets and take a more holistic approach in its decision-making. Such a development would be very welcome.

Social Justice Ireland welcomes some aspects of the framework, has concerns about others and proposes a series of specific policy initiatives that would go some distance towards achieving each of the 10 mission statements set out in the framework.

Identifying the need for a vibrant economy is essential.

So, too, is a recognition that the importance of the role of government intervention in the economy and society has never been clearer.

The prioritising of housing, healthcare and climate are all welcome developments.

However, if these major challenges are to be addressed effectively, major new initiatives will be required.

On housing, for example, current schemes which disproportionately benefit those who do not need assistance buying a home should be closed as soon as possible.

Likewise, Ireland needs to replace the current

Local Property Tax with a Site Value Tax; we must improve the mechanisms for penalising landhoarding; and reinstate the windfall gains tax that was removed in Budget 2015.

The supply of social housing will also have to increase substantially beyond what was previously planned if the programme is to meet current challenges.

To address the challenges on healthcare identified in the framework, the resources required to implement the Slaintecare report within the original timeframe should be frontloaded to the greatest extent possible — and this should be made a key policy priority of the new programme for Government.

There should also be renewed focus on the Vision for Change mental health initiative, and Government should pursue the implementation of a statutory homecare scheme.

If the issue of climate and the new green deal is to be addressed effectively, money from the carbon tax increases should be ring-fenced to help fund a Just Transition, though it must also be acknowledged that greater funding from other sources will also be necessary.

Likewise, the need to fully mobilise budgetary and monetary resources is a key issue.

The assertion that all decisions about national finances must be fair and sustainable is welcome. However, the lack of concrete proposals on how the recovery from Covid-19 or the subsequent building of a new society will be paid for is disappointing.

The framework document does not, for example, recognise that Ireland’s total tax take is low by European Union standards — and must increase towards the European norm if we are to finance investment to bring Ireland’s infrastructure and services up to the levels enjoyed by our peer countries in western Europe.

This can be done without raising income tax, as Social Justice Ireland has been pointing out for years.

The assertion that all decisions with regard to national finances must be fair and sustainable, is most welcome and should be followed through with initiatives to ensure this actually happens.

The document’s failure to address inequality in any serious manner is disappointing.

Finally, the actual Programme for Government should include a much greater emphasis on the need for real social dialogue — involving all stakeholders, not just some — to create consensus on what Ireland’s new social contract should look like, and how it is to be achieved.