Fine Gael National Press Office Press Release

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Lenihan's redundancy levy rip-off must be overturned - Bruton

With thousands of newly redundant workers facing the grim prospect of having the new higher income levy backdated on their redundancy payments, Fine Gael Deputy Leader & Finance Spokesman Richard Bruton TD has called on Brian Lenihan to close this 'scandalous' Budget loophole.

"Thousands of people who have been made redundant by the end of April are likely to have the new income levy backdated on a portion of their redundancy payments, even though the higher levy only kicks in on May 1st.

"It's bad enough that thousands of people are losing their jobs every month. But for the Government to go chasing after their hard-earned redundancy payments by applying new taxes retrospectively is scandalous.

"This sneaky measure was brought in through the Minister's emergency Budget, even though he stated explicitly in his Budget speech that the measures would start on May 1st.

"We need to know whether Minister Lenihan made a mistake by including people receiving redundancy sums in a measure designed for people who make annual tax returns, or whether he deliberately intended to sneak in this retrospective tax.

"The Government has failed catastrophically to come up with any plan to address Ireland's unemployment crisis or ease the plight of the jobless, in stark contrast to Fine Gael's own proposals to create 100,000 new jobs, as set out in Rebuilding Ireland. The Government cannot be allowed to impose this scandalous measure, which is in breach of all known principles of tax fairness. Minister Lenihan must come clean on this matter and move to rectify the situation as quickly as possible.

"It remains to be seen how many other punitive loopholes remain in place in the emergency Budget which have not yet come to light."