The €6 billion budget black hole Sinn Féin must explain — Harris

Ahead of Sinn Fein’s pre-budget submission, Minister of State at the Department of Finance Simon Harris TD has said the party has some explaining to do.

“The public should know there are serious question marks over Sinn Féin’s credibility. For example, having been bounced into a change of position on water charges for electoral reasons, they now say they will abolish the charges but retain Irish Water. This would see all of the costs associated with Irish Water come back into general Government expenditure, instead of being off the books, meaning their pre-budget submission needs to account for an extra €850 million to accommodate this.

“Furthermore, over the past three budgets, the Government has introduced €9.8 billion in saving measures. However, over the course of their last three pre-budget submissions, Sinn Féin’s proposals add up to just €4 billion in savings. That’s almost a €6 billion black hole.

“Sinn Féin are recycling the same set of proposals every year. Instead of putting three years’ worth of accumulated savings on the table, they have barely put forward one year’s worth of savings.

“For example, they’ve proposed to increase the higher rate of income tax by 7% three years in a row. But implementing a 7% tax increase three times would raise the top income tax rate to over 62%, leaving an incredible total tax rate of 73% when USC and PRSI is included, devastating the economy.

“Sinn Fein have also sneakily pocketed the revenue from measures they have vehemently opposed like the increase in the higher VAT rate.

Sinn Fein has some explaining to do when they release their submission tomorrow:

1.        How would they have made €9.8 billion in savings over the last three budgets?

2.        How do they explain the €6 billion hole in their figures, considering they have both recycled the same set of measures (eg. 48% rate of income tax) three years in a row and ‘pocketed’ the savings generated from government measures they opposed (eg. Budget 2012 change to VAT)?

3.        Do they now agree with all or just some of the budgetary measures they opposed? Which ones do they support?”