Varadkar: "It's not the state's responsibility (to provide a home and an education)"

Gerard Brady of IBEC produced this graph, to show how the SRCOP has not kept up with wages.

How else are we to pay for the "forever homes" and the rest of the "entitlements"?

No PAYE earner pays 50% of their earnings to the state in income tax/USC/PRSI. If they do, they are doing something very very wrong.

You do understand that if your employer paid you the extra €1,500 as salary instead of providing the medical insurance, you'd pay tax on that salary? So why would you get €1,500 worth of medical insurance free of tax?

Don't forget to claim your medical insurance tax credit by the way.

I never said we shouldn't be paying tax on it, just said it was a tax, which it is.

Guys, guys — enough with the bickering about tax. Whether the state does or does not have responsibilities in the areas of housing and education doesn't depend at all on what tax rates are.

For the record, Ireland collects about 37.5% of modified Gross National Income in tax. That's pretty close to the EU average. However compared to other EU countries we collect a relatively greater share in income tax, and a relatively lesser share in social insurance contributions (or equivalent). We also have lower property taxes than the EU average.

As to the State's responsibilities, we'd do far better to look at the Constitution than to bicker over claims about tax rates. The State does have a responsiblity with regard to education; the Constitution is quite explicit about this. It beggars belief that Varadkar wouldn't know this.

It has less to say about housing, providing in Art 40.5 simply that a citizen's dwelling is inviolable and cannot be forcibly entered save in accordance with law. Art 41 recognises that a family needs to have a home, but says nothing about who is to provide it. The State's duty to safeguard the family presumably provides a constitutional basis for state policy promoting the provision of housing, but there isn't a lot of detail there.

But, whether it's constitutionally required or not, the State always has had a role in the provision of housing. We inherited this role from the UK in 1922, and greatly expanded it in the decades that followed. The notion that the state has no responsibility in this are is, um, a novel one.

(And, if Varadkar really thinks that the State has no responsibility for the provision of education, which is demonstrable rubbish, his views on whether the State has a role in the provision of housing won't command much persuasive authority.)

I think what often gets missed on the debate on tax rates in Ireland is what we end up having to pay for private health costs here.

Private health insurance is an optional extra in other European countries.

In Ireland it's basically essential if you can afford it, and takes a very sizable chunk of peoples salaries.

After that there's many more smaller examples of sneaky stealth taxes ('voluntary' school contributions as a perfect example), all of which add up.

The state having to provide access to housing is very different from having to provide housing.

If the state had any fixed obligations to house people it would be chaos - it's good that we do have social housing etc, but if there was some mandate on govt to house everyone we would collapse

Every child should have a home and and access to an education as a basic start to life in this very rich country

Someone should have told your parents about children’s allowance.

Childrens Allowance/Child Benefit was introduced in the 1940s

We were building more local authority houses in the 60's than now.

And by the way LA tenants pay rent on a graduated scale.

Also free secondary education and school transport from 1967.

Are you under the impression that local authority housing is given out for free?