Cathal BarryGovt accused of ‘systematically’ attacking family
A leading economist has accused the Government of “systematically” discriminating against marriage by imposing “anti-family” taxes on hard-pressed couples.
Prof. Ray Kinsella, of the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business at University College Dublin (UCD), warned that the current tax system in Ireland was contributing to marriage breakdown and the high levels of homelessness in the country.
Citing tax individualisation as chief among policies that “disincentivise” family formation, Prof. Kinsella told The Irish Catholic that the “lack of economic incentives” for families has put “huge pressure” on couples and left them “vulnerable”.
Tax individualisation was introduced by Charlie McCreevy in 2000 when he was Minister for Finance.
It means that married families where only one parent works outside the home are taxed more heavily than where both work outside the home.
Prof. Kinsella warned that “the lack of economic incentives and policies such as tax individualisation have put huge pressure on families and left them vulnerable to the kind of events that have happened”.
“If you don’t have policies that incentivise people to stay together, to form families in a way that is sustainable, then you are going to see the kind of homelessness that we are seeing now,” he said.
Prof. Kinsella claimed that “we’re now in the nonsensical position where the Government is imposing austerity and cutting back on many essential social services in order to fund the consequences of an entirely predictable set of anti-family policies”.
“The consequences are all around us,” he warned, noting that “the breakdown in families in society in Ireland goes back quite some time”.
“We have a quite a few administrations that have systematically discriminated against marriage. There are consequences to that and they are happening all around us,” Prof. Kinsella said, citing marriage breakdown, increased homelessness experienced by families and the impact on children.
“It’s systematic, it reflects Government policy, or rather the lack of Government policy, and there is a huge cost. We are now bearing part of the cost of that,” he said.