Sinn Féin’s Budget slams ordinary workers by increasing taxes and opposing home ownership – Durkan

Sinn Féin’s wish list Budget looks to penalise ordinary families by increasing taxes, attacking job creation and locking workers out of home ownership, a Fine Gael TD has said.

Sinn Féin’s Alternative Budget 2022 is high-tax and anti-jobs, while their policies are built on nothing more than pure fiction, Oireachtas Finance Committee member Deputy Bernard Durkan has said.

Deputy Durkan said, “Sinn Féin’s Budget is hitting middle-income workers from all angles; it opposes home ownership, fails to cut taxes, and ultimately reduces the amount people take home at the end of the month.

“Sinn Féin in Government would lump taxes on ordinary families.

“Not only do they oppose income tax cuts for workers, they’re also proposing 14 separate tax increases amounting to €1.5 billion. Increasing taxes and failing to adjust income tax for inflation in this Budget would mean that workers would end up paying more tax and have less money in their pockets.

“Yet again we see proof that Sinn Féin is against home ownership. Not content with voting against new housing, they now want to abolish the Help to Buy Scheme – the initiative that has helped over 27,500 people previously locked out of the property market to own their first home.

“When it comes to the cost of actually building houses, Sinn Féin seem to be living on a different planet. While they think they can build a home for €150,000, at a time of soaring construction costs, the true price is closer to €230,000.

“Sinn Féin’s policy on pensions amounts to nothing more than fiction. It’s as far from solid policy-making as you can get; they estimate the cost of guaranteeing the right to retire at 65 at €127 million while the real cost of this for a full pension at 65 would cost over €1 billion.”