CORI Release Budget Proposals

CORI have published their budget proposals (PDF here). Doubtless these will have an input into the Taoioseach and Finance Minister’s thinking come December. Headline Proposals below the fold. The details of these are fleshed out in the 12 pages that follow on the PDF file. Have a read.

Taxation

• Make tax credits refundable.
• Increase tax credits so as to keep the minimum wage out of the tax net.
• Further expand the levy on financial institutions introduced in Budget 2003.
• Introduce a speculative tax on windfall gains from land rezoning.
• Commit to increasing Ireland’s total tax take towards the EU average.
• Increase the tax on wealth (e.g., through increasing DIRT tax)
• Increase the tax-take from property (e.g., through a land rent tax)
• Restructure motor taxes.
• Standard rate all discretionary tax expenditures.

Income Distribution

• Increase the lowest social welfare rates by €20 a week for a single person.
• Increase child benefit substantially and do not tax it.
• Move towards individualisation of social welfare payments.
• Introduce a cost of disability allowance.
• Expand the recently announced increase in free electricity units so that it goes to all social welfare and FIS recipients.

Work/Unemployment/Job-Creation

Place an ongoing emphasis on preparing and enabling unemployed people to access jobs. This would involve providing additional resources to support:

• Increased numbers of places providing quality education and training, retraining and up -skilling.
• Expanded opportunities for unemployed people to gain workplace experience, and
• Adequate numbers of places on programmes such as Community

Employment

• Expand the programme providing direct funding for community and voluntary organisations that provide services and do not make this funding dependent on C&V organisations employing people who do not have the requisite skills.
• Provide resources to conduct a survey to discover the value of all unpaid work in the country (including community and voluntary work and work in the home).

Public Services

• Target funding strategies to ensure that far greater priority is given to providing an easy-access, affordable and high quality public transport system.
• Provide substantial additional resources for the development of library services.
• Adopt further information technology programmes to increase the skills of school children, early school-leavers and the unemployed.
• Take initiatives to ensure equality of access across all public services.
• Acknowledge that everyone has a right to appropriate accommodation and develop policy from this perspective.
• Provide the resources to local authorities and to the voluntary/nonprofit housing sector to ensure an increase of 9,000 social housing units in 2007.
• Provide sufficient resources to address the housing problems of those with a disability.

Healthcare

• Fund 100 additional primary care teams as committed to in Towards 2016.
• Give far greater priority to community care and increase the resources for core community care services for older people with priority to be given to home care.
• Raise the eligibility level for the full medical card.
• Work towards universal access in primary care.
• Prioritise funding for primary and family-based pre-school education.
• Provide “early start” programmes in all disadvantaged communities (including those outside disadvantaged areas).
• Further prioritise Adult and Community Education
• Introduce a Basic Educational Allowance for full-time and part-time education for persons between ages 18 and 40 who do not proceed to third level from school.

Rural Development

• Ensure the provision of basic infrastructure and services based more on equity and social justice, rather than on cost effectiveness
• Provide support for rural housing.
• Provide additional resources for the development of rural public services.

Environment

• Allocate the necessary resources to achieve waste reduction targets by implementing the relevant sections of the Waste Management Act.
• Allocate substantial additional resources to develop and reward recycling.

ODA

Honour the commitment to increase Ireland’s ODA budget for poor countries to the UN target of 0.7% of GNP by 2012. In doing so, reach the interim target of 0.5% of GNP in Budget 2007.