Taoiseach Enda Kenny has today pledged to cut income tax and the most loathsome Universal Social Charge (USC), putting forward the notion that the road to Ireland’s economic recovery should be “felt by those at work”.
Always according to Mr. Kenny, he claims that one in four workers will not be paying the USC at all by 2016, and also that an extra 40,000 jobs will have become a reality by the end of this year.
The Taoiseach insists that such measures will be implemented to “make work pay”, and his intention is to exclude 90,000 low-paid workers from the USC trap.
He also hinted at reforms to tax for the self-employed, and an increase in the minimum wage.
These populist claims come at a time when support for the main political parties is slumping badly, and the rise of Sinn Fein, Independents, and new political alliances, are set to challenge the long stagnated political status quo in Ireland.