What should be done with projected €65 billion budget surplus?

And that wouldnt help with the inflation problem we have.

Quiet you with your fiscal responsibility! 😄

Have you ever checked how much USC you pay each year compared with income tax? Take out your last payslip and have a look at the figures.

Income tax is easily avoided , USC absolutely cannot be. Its a far fairer and better tax and should be increased if anything, not abolished.

Income tax is what should be changed to put more money back in the pockets of the squeezed middle.

I'll probably be told how wrong I am and a country isn't a household but I'd be happier if a significant chunk want to pay off any expensive national debt we have and then another significant chunk on capital projects that aren't complete rip offs and then if there are any chunks left, start a rainy day fund....then perhaps a chav/scummer with over say 50 convictions (incredibly that would still yield a very respectable number of interns but we could slowly lower the number) forced labour "rehabilitation" camp on one of the less scenic islands with snipers on the mainland paid a handsome bounty for the heads of any absconders.

Obviously I wouldn't get elected or anywhere near the levers of power and not just because of my rehabilitation idea.

build some **** houses

Gardai and prisons

People keep forgetting when they suggest current expenditure items like social welfare expansion and universal basic income from the exchequer, that this is not reliable income for the long term.

It is a POSSIBLE future temporary surplus of budgeted income and it can be used in three ways; to pay down debt, to fund capital expenditure or to be banked for future demands, foreseen or unforeseen.

To my mind the hierarchy should be to a) 50% to pay down debt rather than refinance at our current higher rates b) 40% into sovereign reserve and c) 10% capital infrastructure to fund climate transition and promote further sustainable economic growth (rail, energy, broadband, publicly built housing).

I say only 10% for capital because firstly we already have a huge capital fund in Project 2040 and secondly we scarcely have the capacity to build all that and without turning into an inflationary monster.

Besides, basic incomes and the likes are only a disincentive to work and end up in an inflationary spiral to keep up with the additional spend and price increases that it generates. There is more than sufficient of social supports in Ireland without further transferring taxes to unproductive budget headings.

It really took 25 posts for someone to mention a prison!, even though if we think back across the entire history of the message board, the most frequent consternation has always been over a lack of prison space leading to stupidly lenient sentences which would otherwise be unenforceable.

Put it in a sovereign wealth fund which is then used to fund capital projects like:

• New hospitals
• New Schools
• New prisons
• Connected public transport (metro north and dart underground would be a start)
• Roads with the capacity to allow further housing expansion in the metropolitan areas
• Electric charging network (the future is personalised electric transport, we should be leaning into this, solar and windfarms everywhere)
• Upgraded water and electricity infrastructure
• Planners
• Judiciary reform
• Properly subsidised childcare (along with any infrastructure required)

Don't blow it on welfare and public service wages, the above would generate enough jobs for everyone that can work, have future projects ready to go and paid for by the completed projects that drive economic activity.

A new primary radar, military jets ,and some extra spending on the defense forces,

Ireland isn't strategically significant enough for all that, it's also virtually surrounded by NATO.

Whereas prison capacity has been discussed ad nauseum for decades now, not just in reaction to a war.

With all due respect, that's all very vague, a bloke down the pub told me something sort of thing.