Sir, – The universal social charge (USC) must be the longest temporary little arrangement ever devised. This lucrative revenue-raising measure was introduced back in 2010 by the then minister for finance Brian Lenihan at the peak of the financial crisis, and came into effect in 2011; but we were led to believe its introduction was a provisional enterprise, Twelve years on, and the USC is still with us. So why doesn’t the Government come straight out and say once and for all that it intends to continue with the initiative on a permanent basis? It wouldn’t be beyond its wit to come up with a plausible expedient to explain why it was continuing with the not altogether inequitable policy. – Yours, etc,
PAUL DELANEY,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.