Sir, - Would someone please tell Wim Duisenberg, ECB President, to take a running jump for himself - off the Cliffs of Moher?
This man, who has made a dog's dinner of launching the euro (at the behest of the Germans, whose economy it suits), has the presumption to come over here and lecture us about how we should manage our economy and who should benefit.
As a person who has paid penal rates of tax for the past 30 years, of 52, 48, 46 and 44 per cent, I take serious exception to his advice that tax rates for the PAYE sector should not be lowered.
As to his contention that we are getting a free ride, he is certainly right to some degree here. The people who are getting the free ride in the Irish economy are the business sector, where Corporation Profits Tax has been reduced from 36 per cent to 24 per cent and over the next three years will be reduced further to 12.5 per cent. This is a state of affairs which has full EU approval, including that of Wim Duisenberg.
This ridiculously low Corporation Profits Tax, together with a 20 per cent Capital Gains Tax and the non-enforcement of business and self-employed taxes (eight prosecutions over the past three years out of a self-employed sector of 250,000) has led to the concentration of an enormous amount of wealth in the hands of the non-PAYE sector. This in turn has led to strong demand for expensive luxury goods and is a major contributor to inflation.
Duisenburg's utterances, of course, suit the Government's purposes, which are to dampen PAYE expectations in the run-up to the Budget. This is a tactic used many times by Ruairi Quinn and Charlie McCreevy. However, after listening for the past two years to tales of widespread tax evasion, the PAYE sector is in no mood to settle for anything but a fair share of the spoils of a buoyant economy.
The "someone" who should be telling Duisenberg, McCreevy and IBEC that we want a fair share is, of course, the ICTU. Instead of hob-nobbing with the Government and business establishment and pathetically bleating in the wilderness about price control, Congress should be making the case for the same levels of taxation as the business sector. Instead it managed to negotiate a pay deal that effectively amounts to a pay cut at a time of unprecedented prosperity for everyone else.
In the weeks and months to come an all-out campaign by Government, banks, the EU, the media and economists will be mounted to ensure that no more tax concessions are given to the PAYE sector (with perhaps the exception of the very low-paid). It is up to every worker to demand that if tax cuts have to be reneged upon, the first port of call must be Corporation Profits Tax. - Yours, etc.,
Frank Cosgrove, Ardmulchan, Navan, Co Meath.