Sinn Féin County Councillor Gerry Murray has condemned the introduction of the pension levy which he claims puts the burden of Ireland’s public finances on low and medium income public workers and lets the oil and gas companies off the hook once again. He described the Government’s spin doctors as shameful in their “pathetic attempt to portray and blame public sector workers as being exclusively responsible for the current economic downturn”. Cllr Murray challenged Fianna Fáil on the fairness of the public service pension levy noting that the “sliding scale in the levy discriminates against the lower paid while the oil and gas multi-nationals go untouched.”
Cllr Murray said: “Fianna Fáil are saying that public sector workers paying the new pension levy will be able to avail of tax relief in the same way as those in the private sector do. However the fiscal reality is that tax relief favours high earners, and relief provided for pension contributions arising from the pension levy will result in almost the same percentage levy for earners on €20,000 as it does for those who earn €300,000.”
“It is clear from the Government’s pension levy plan that the sliding scale in the levy discriminates against the lower paid. The higher you go up the scale the smaller the increases in the levy become.
“Meanwhile the gas and oil companies have been completely untouched. No levies or increased taxation have been imposed. The Government continues to refuse to become a stakeholder in our natural resources and year after year concedes more and more exploration licences to the oil and gas industry for giveaway terms,” Cllr Murray added.
