Notes on the Front

UNITE has launched its pre-budget submission entitled, ‘Beyond
Austerity’.  It puts forward a number of
proposals that seek to expand economic activity – growth, investment,
employment and consumer spending which has the effect of reducing the deficit
in a less wasteful (i.e. less economically destructive) manner.

There is no magic bullet, a single lever that when pulled,
makes everything right.  There is a need
to make a number of policy areas – public sector reform, fiscal expansion,
labour market, public investment, enterprise development and social insurance –
work together so that it reinforces growth and rising living standards.  Inreasing economic productivity and social equity are two sides of the same coin.

The full submission can be found here.  A summary of the proposals can be found
here.  The main proposals are:

• A halt to cuts in overall spending
• An additional €500 million in taxes to be levied on top
  earners and unproductive activity
• An increase in employer’s PRSI on salaries over €100,000
  with revenue to create a new pay-related unemployment benefit
• Reinvestment of savings, efficiencies and productivity gains
  into domestic demand by reversing some of the most outrageous cuts in recent
  Budgets
• A Special Investment Programme equivalent to 1 per cent of
  GDP (1.7 billion), to be funded from the sale of Irish Life and Band of Ireland
  bonds
• A €1 billion Enterprise Fund to be sourced from the
  Strategic Investment Fund
• Strengthen labour rights through the introduction of the
  right to collective bargaining, providing part-term workers the right to
  full-time work within companies, and an increase in the minimum wage to €9.20
  per hour. 

The combined effect of these measures would be to boost
employment, consumer spending and living standards while reducing poverty and
deprivation.  And all these benefits work
to reduce the deficit in a more sustainable way.

This is the alternative to austerity.  This is the alternative to TINA.  The issue, ultimately, is political.  And the Government has choices.