The Government needs to concentrate more on closing down tax shelters and reliefs - costing the State millions of euro each year - than cutting the pay of civil and public servants, a trade union said today.
The Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (AHCPS) said its 3,400 members had already made “significant sacrifices” and that it was “unfair in the extreme” to ask them to take further cuts in pay as a result of the December Budget.
General secretary Dave Thomas said between €300 and €400 million could be generated by closing property incentives and tax reliefs introduced when the construction sector was booming.
He said: “In 2005 and 2006 property based tax incentives cost the State €383 million and €464 million respectively.
“Nearly four in five people earning over €500,000 had an effective tax rate of less than 20 per cent, while everyone earning between €250-500,000 used reliefs to ensure they paid less than 20 per cent tax.”
Mr Thomas said the AHCPS is looking for “fairness in the taxation system” and said that “no-one in the private sector should pay any more than their equivalent in the public sector.”
“The thrust of Government policy should be on closing down tax shelters and ensuring everyone pays the appropriate level of income tax, rather than scapegoating public sector workers.
“The concept of equity and fairness is blatantly absent from the current debate and inordinate burdens are being placed almost exclusively on the shoulders of public sector workers,” he added.
Mr Thomas was speaking as the union ballotde its members on participation in Ictu’s one-day strike on 24th November.