The most unethical theft is conducted by people who have superior knowledge over their victims and easily manipulate them into handing over their money. The Irish Government is proving to be the master of all con artists in this sense.

I write this more for the sake of posterity as I feel it will fall on deaf years, but maybe one day you will think on this and see how misrepresented we are as a people, and sadly how incapable we are to see through the actions of those in power.

My memory of USC was that it was introduced to foot the deficit caused by the Banking Crisis and by its very nature was the most unpopular taxation measure in my lifetime. Brian Cowen even expressed that he believes the introduction of USC was the reason Fianna Fail lost 51 seats in the 2011 election:

“I actually believe the USC cleaned us: the USC cleaned us in Dublin. I think the USC cost us between 10 and 15 seats,” Brian Cowen

The FG/FF government now plan to merge USC with PRSI. They tell us that this is a good thing because we will have access to more benefits for the same value of tax we already pay.

Of course this will be the greatest swindle of 2018, although you may benefit slightly, and bear in mind it will be ever so slightly, the real cost will be that you continue to pay while others get a break. Collectively we will all continue to pay, the crime in that is that we will not all continue to pay equally.

Currently  people who earn more than €70,444 a year are set to pay USC @ 8% and PRSI which is capped @ 4%. This means they pay a flat tax of 12% on gross earnings. After the merge high earners will be paying as little as 4% if the cap remains the same. The merge with PRSI will mean higher income earners will have vastly more spending power, potentially benefiting from a tax break of 8%. It is high earners who will benefit most. Meanwhile that lost tax will be made up collectively by the ordinary Joe and collectively we end up with less, and like every short term memory in Irish politics the mistake of eliminating USC will be forgotten about in one or two terms time.

This is simply far removed from the burden sharing election promises Fine Gael made to us in 2011. I would go so far as to say that it is theft from the working class, who will end up paying more of Ireland's debt in the long run and have fewer benefits as a result of lost revenue following the proposed merge.

"The USC is a far bigger issue than water charges. People working hard for a living are feeling victimised by our tax system" Fine Gael TD John Deasy

The left is often cited as calling for an introduction of so called wealth taxes, but what’s hidden in the cracks is how the neoliberals constantly erode our ability to sustain equitable taxes on the wealthy. It’s not a burden on someone who has more to pay more. Equality is the only reasonable way to support a democracy. USC doesn’t need to be merged with PRSI at this stage, what we need is a USC that doesn’t penalise low income workers, but one that remains in place for the top earners in society.

Of course the tax system is inevitably corrupt because USC impacts on the wages of politicians and their contributors, a TD’s basic salary being €89,965 a year. Which means politicians will benefit from this merge, so we’re being sold something which hurts us in the long run by the people it benefits most.

​We, the public, are at a disposition to understand how much of an opportunity USC presents in working towards an equitable tax system. We don’t need to introduce a wealth tax, we just need to keep Lenihan’s Legacy in place and use it to our advantage, while making it fairer for those who earn less.

The politicians are acting out of self interest when they suggest a merge, and this my friend is nothing but a con, plain and simple.

(Picture by Geraldine O’Neill)

There is a lot to reflect on from the Repeal The 8th March on Saturday, a crowd of some 40,000 people demanding equality in a peaceful, colourful and good spirited demonstration in the nation’s capital.

However the topic is quite serious and what troubles me is that advocates of the 8th have an unjust advantage in that they seem to very easily manipulate our inherent good nature by implanting falsehoods, claiming the 8th amendment protects children.

So here are five quick pointers from the weekend, which most people on the march would know but that you need to share with your friends in order to overcome the bias of the pro-eighters and their glam rag hate flyers.

1.  The Citizen’s Assembly voted that the issue of abortion should not be dealt with in the constitution but the government have not acted on their independent recommendation to remove the 8th amendment. FF, FG, and SF remain silent on the issue so as not to alienate themselves from voters. This is nothing but cowardly from the largest parties in the state.
2. Ireland has the most repressive abortion laws in Europe. Women or Doctors found aiding an abortion face up to 14 years in prison in Ireland. This is the same sentence women face for having an abortion in Nigeria. This also includes doctors offering medical advice on abortion.
3. Amnesty International called Ireland out for failing to comply with International Human Rights Law. Amnesty’s website carries the following message for Ireland: ‘Women and girls must also have access to abortion on the minimum grounds set out under international human rights law for the duration of their pregnancies. Therefore, they should have access to safe and legal abortion when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, when the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman’s health or following a severe or fatal foetal impairment diagnosis. Abortion ‘on request’ should be available without limits for adolescent girls, guaranteeing their best interests, and ensuring in law and practice that their views are always heard and respected in abortion decisions.’
4. Every day, between 10 and 12 women and girls living in Ireland travel to England for an abortion. The majority of the women are aged between 20 and 34. The 8th amendment does not stop abortions from happening; it just prevents Irish people from accessing medical advice and procedures in Ireland. The 8th amendment also discriminates against asylum seekers and people trapped in Direct Provision who cannot travel for medical procedures.
5. People who want to have children will have children. Irish people are not gendercide monsters who want to terminate all ginger fetuses, not all teenage pregnancies are unwanted babies, access to abortion does not mean we have mass graves of unknown human beings – that was the Catholic Church’s method of dealing with the Tuam babies. We must trust people with their choices. We must show the courage to act now when our government has failed us. 

Act now and demand a referendum to repeal the unlawful 8th amendment, we must ensure it is fully removed from our constitution.