Notes on the Front

UNITE has published their ‘People’s Budget’ – an alternative to the deflationary orthodoxy that retains its grip on the debate and strategy. The principles behind the strategy are

• a €15 billion investment programme to reverse the driving force behind the Irish recession and to embed growth and employment in the economy, rather than deficits

• a growth-friendly fiscal consolidation package driven by taxation, with no tax rises on low-average income groups next year to protect domestic demand

• no cuts in overall level of public spending; rather, any efficiencies and savings in current spending (e.g. more effective political management, increased productivity, reduction in regressive spending, reduced unemployment costs arising from increased investment)

The investment programme would be paid out of the considerable cash and assets maintained by the Pension Fund and the National Treasury Management Agency (which is why it is so important to ring-fence these resources from the IMF/EU bail-out deal).

You can read the document here.

You can read the macro-economic appendix here.