Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty claimed that the Minister’s remarks were “false” and added that the Government’s planned tax cuts target those on the median income, meaning almost half of workers will miss out on savings.
In its alternative budget today, Sinn Féin pledged a two-tier abolishment of the Universal Social Charge, beginning with workers earning €30,000 or less and later scrapping it for workers earning less than €45,000.
Key to the party’s budget ideas was the €10 per day for childcare idea, which it says will be met with increased capital finding for providers and double child benefit payments in October and December.
The party said its budget was aiming to make Ireland a “better place” for families.
The abolition of the local property tax, stopping increases to the carbon tax and reverse the latest rise in excise duty are all included in the party’s alternative budget, which Doherty said it would be proposing if it were in Government.
Additionally, Sinn Féin are proposing a levy on private jets, which it says will to raise €18 million.
Speaking to reporters, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that the party’s aims of a “fair and balanced” tax system that “puts money back in workers pockets”.
“In our alternative budget we choose to invest in meeting the challenges of today and to plan for a better future,” McDonald said.
Doherty criticised the Government’s spending of public funds and pointed to what he called “runaway projects” such as the National Children’s Hospital.
He further criticised the Government for not detailing the expected surplus to the opposition or the public for this year’s budget or using the surplus to a greater extent – but added that Sinn Féin would not be looking to quickly spend those funds either.
“There will be billions of a surplus next year and what we have look at is what is possible in terms of the budget required to support workers and families, the level of investment that we need in terms of the economy and the capacity for the economy to absorb that level of investment,” Doherty said.
The Donegal TD defended the measures in the current plan and made the point that Sinn Féin were thinking ahead in terms of the surplus, claiming that this budget was the first part of a five-year plan.
SF’s budget will exceed €1,000 in benefits
Doherty also claimed that Chambers’ remarks that the average worker will be €1,000 better off were “false” and reasoned that his party’s budget will do more to bring those funds to workers.
He said that Sinn Féin’s plans to abolish USC for workers earning €30,000 or less in the first year will mean those workers will have €605 more in their pocket next year, compared to the previous year.
He added that the energy and support packages for households will benefit families by giving €400 energy credits, which then “already exceeds €1,000″.
Advertisement
“What Jack Chambers doesn’t tell you is that when he says that the average worker, he actually doesn’t really mean the average worker,” he said.
He added: “We know that the median income in this state is €43,000, so what does that mean? It means half of all workers actually earn less than that, so what Fine Gael delivered for half of the country’s workers last year was a tax package that benefited them by less than €400.”
Doherty promised €4 billion of capital investment, much of which would be allocated to housing. The party would build 21,500 social and affordable homes in 2025, the document says.
It would also remove stamp duty for first-time buyers.
Doherty said a Sinn Féin government would not have “runaway projects”, such as the National Children’s Hospital, which has attracted controversy due to delays and its approved budget being extended to €2.2 billion.
Cost of living
The party’s budget includes a cost of living package worth €2.3 billion.
It would introduce a €1.10 increase in the rate of minimum wage, mortgage interest relief payments, a ban on rent increases for three years, and a month’s worth of rent back to renters at a cost of €1.5 million.
There would be a €20 increase for core disability social welfare, a €12 increase for carers, and a new pay-related carer’s benefit under Sinn Féin’s Alternative Budget.
The abolition of the TV licence, €450 electricity credits, reduced VAT rate for household energy, a €300 fuel allowance, €500 disability and carers lump sum payments, €200 living alone payments and a double social welfare and pension payment at Christmas were also included.
Asked how it intends to finance the reoccurring payments, Doherty claimed that it can be done so through the pending billions of euro in the Budget’s surplus.
“The government are going to cut taxes to the tune of €1.4 billion euro. Do the Government need to find new taxes to fund that package? No, they don’t, and neither do we,” he said.
He added that because Sinn Féin have proposed a staggered abolition of the USC, if it were to be in Government it would be able to afford such measures with the billions expected to be included in the surplus public accounts.
Doherty reasoned that the cost of a total abolition would be too high, which is why Sinn Féin have chosen to take the approach it has done and later decide how best to use the additional public funds.
Childcare
As well as reducing direct childcare costs – a major issue for families around the country – Sinn Féin would increase child benefit payments by €10 and provide an additional four weeks of parental leave.
It says it would expand the free school books scheme to secondary schools, cut third level student fees by €1,500, and abolish apprenticeship fees, as well as building more student accommodation.
Irish unification
The party also announced that it would allocated €3 million to running a citizen’s assembly on constitutional change before holding a referendum on Irish unity.
Additionally, it would spend €8 million on conducting “Irish unity research”.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
83 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
iPad sales had seen a massive drop in their last earnings report too. It will be even bigger this time next year, people don’t own large-screened phones and use tablets too, it’s pointless. I could see the point of owning both when the iPhone screens were tiny, not now though.
I would imagine people change phones more often than they change a tablet, so the top-end of the tablet market may be suffering some saturation at the moment before it settles into a normal renewal cycle.
I’m genuinely surprised how little iTunes contributes to their income.
Android is still too buggy , there are too many cheap android devices that can’t perform basic tasks.
Anyone can operate an iPad whether they are 3 or 83 , the older generation have embraced apple tech much easier than android!
Yes, I would imagine you are correct. Certainly wouldn’t be a massive difference now between the phones and the iPad mini.
Great phone by the way, the Samsung killer I would say.
I’d say they’re fine losing market share to the €100 Android tablets that you see knocking about, the people buying those were unlikely to get an iPad. I’d like to see a breakdown of the flagship tablet market.
That’s odd in the last apple story there was a guy who’s friend worked in a mobile phone shop and apparently they couldn’t sell any iPhones at all.
I was sure that was a reliable source for sales figures.
Being a user of both, I can definitely say that Apple is to restrictive and therefore useless in a lot of ways. Once they have you, they want to enslave you into buying all their products. To many frustrations. Would definitely not recommended Apple. Don’t become an Apple zombie!
Have both myself also , but do not find any real restrictions on IOS. Depends how you use them I suppose. Both are great, but if generally find Apple a better interface and build quality.
I haven’t come across an interesting new app for ages. It’s good to see the hardware improving but the software people seem to have hit a brick wall. It seems to me that the industry needs more personal information from us to develop but we are getting more careful and taking the privacy option where possible. The U2 album fiasco showed that what we want is not what they want to give us. We want to draw back from the always on connected world and to pick and choose how we interact.
Htc have a new range of tablets Comming out on November 3rd and if they are anything like the HTC One M8 phone They will storm the tablet Charts.Sd card will mean a lot more storage freed up on the tablet itself.
HTC One M7 & M8 are great phones but unfortunately they do not sell very well HTC made a big loss on the M7, have improved with the M8, but still nowhere near the likes of Samsung.
Always used iPhones but today i upgraded to an S5. Vodafone are out of stock with no date for new iPhone 6 handsets and it would have cost me 250 blips. S5 is free with the same if not better specs. Total no brainer
The number of schools needing financial crisis help has increased by 540% in two years
Muiris O'Cearbhaill
42 mins ago
286
3
Alexei Navalny
Russian security service carry out 'revenge' raid on house of Alexei Navalny ally's father
2 hrs ago
3.6k
Live Blog
US stocks drop sharply as EU considers response to Trump tariffs
7 hrs ago
47.0k
68
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 161 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 110 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 143 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 113 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 39 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 35 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 134 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 61 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 37 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 92 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 99 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 88 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 69 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say