Finance debate: The Government was repeatedly accused at the Green convention of bowing to the demands of big business instead of making decisions in the wider public interest.
The party's finance spokesman, Mr Dan Boyle, attacked the Government's continuation of generous tax relief schemes for business, while introducing 16 measures this year to cut social welfare benefits.
"The unspoken philosophy of this Government is social welfare for the wealthy and capitalism for the poor," he said. "Those with resources are incentivised with tax-breaks, while those who are disadvantaged have security taken away from them to make them hungry to better themselves." Mr Boyle said the effect of such policies was akin to "Robin Hood in reverse", under which the highest earners were subject to a lower effective rate of taxation than minimum wage and PAYE workers.
"Most of these tax incentives remain uncosted, but they have been conservatively estimated to have cost the State up to €3.8 billion in forgone taxes,"he said.
