"Any so-called developed society where up to 50% of adults have less than €100 disposable income per month, and 23% of adults have between zero and twenty Euro disposable income per month, must surely sit up and take notice. The inexorable rise in utility charges, and the imposition of government household and water charges, will push many of these families into debt and into the clutches of unscrupulous money lenders."

 

“These figures must be looked at in the context of other statistics released last week which showed that the top 10,000 Irish earners, who have average incomes of €595,000 per year, pay an effective tax rate of just 29%,” Mr. Finnegan continued. "This are the elite which this government serves, and as always we can see the parasites who live off the misery and poverty of the majority. Austerity clearly works for this 10%"

 

"The slash and burn economic policy of this government, which they happily implement hiding behind the troika sledgehammer, is strangling economic activity, killing employment, and driving families and individuals into poverty and despair. Huge swathes of the population are being left with minimal disposable income while an elite gets richer and richer. This is economically counter-productive. The rich always export their wealth while the thousands of low earners, and those on pensions or social welfare, spend the vast bulk of their income in the local economy. It is only by putting more money in the pockets of the least well off that the domestic economy will be revitalised" concluded Mr Finnegan.

 

9th July 2012