Sir, - I find it extraordinary, given the furore over individualisation in 1999, that so little attention has been focused on Mr McCreevy's subsequent treatment of married couples with one spouse earning.
While such couples with eligible children gained, along with everyone else in the same situation, from increased child allowances in the last two budgets, there is one important area where they have been shabbily treated. I refer to the miserly increase in the standard rate tax band. Since 1999, this band has been increased from £28,000 to £29,140 - i.e. by just £1,140. The corresponding increase for two-income couples has been £16,104, which is more than 14 times what the one-income couples received.
The increase for one-income couples does not even come close to matching inflation over the period. Inflation since the 1999 budget has been at least 10 per cent, probably more - and 10 per cent of £28,000 is £2,800.
Is Mr McCreevy engaged in a carrot-and-stick approach, with the stick (reduction of standard rate band in real terms) being surreptitiously applied to one-income couples in order to force them into becoming two-income couples? If so, who gave him a mandate for this sort of social engineering? - Yours, etc.,
Jim Stack, Moneygorm South, Lismore, Co Waterford.