Sir, – Can the ESRI explain the contradiction between its reports published in July and December of this year (“Unemployed worst affected by budgets, says ESRI report”, December 12th)?
In the July report The Distribution of Income and the Public Finances, which covers the years 2008 to 2012, it states that "the fiscal options chosen by successive governments have contributed to an outcome where inequality in the distribution of income has fallen". The successive governments referred to are the present Government and the government of 2007 to 2011. The December report The Distributional Impact of Taxes Welfare and Public Service Policies: Budget 2015 and Budgets 2009 – 2015 finds the outcome of the budgets regressive.
The latest report contains a contradiction within the report itself when it states that the impact of Budget 2015 was “close to neutral” and in the same paragraph that it was “clearly regressive”. It later goes on to state that the results for budgets 2009 to 2015 are “too complex to be characterised as either progressive, regressive or proportional”. That old joke about how many economists it takes to change a light bulb comes to mind. – Yours, etc,
JOANNA TUFFY, TD
Leinster House,
Dublin 2 .