Jim Power

You know, this is sort of ESRI speak really saying, you know, you shouldn't be doing anything to help the better off in society.

You know, the people who feck and pay for everything basically get nothing for nothing.

That kind of pisses me off.

But anyway, in broad terms, I think the overall conclusions are very difficult to argue with.

And I particularly like the...

the approach to housing, to renewable energy, and also to the sustainability of the fiscal situation, all of that I would give five stars to.

Yeah, I do actually.

And I guess one of the problems I have is that, you know, once you go over 44,000 in this country, you basically move on to a margin rate of 52% if you include USC and other taxes.

So a margin rate of 52% over 44,000.

is crazy in my view.

I maybe shouldn't have used the word rich there actually.

I guess I should have sort of said middle income earners.

They are the ones that are actually, I think, demonized in the tax system.

In terms of, I think we would all be prepared to pay more taxes if we believed we were getting good value for money in return.

But if you look at an analysis of Irish public expenditure, it doesn't fill one with confidence.

I mean, my son had the misfortune late last week to spend the night in A&E in St.

Vincent's.

And the description of what was going on there is just incredible, to be honest.

So.

I would love to see a much more structured focus in this country addressing housing, addressing energy, addressing food security, and also addressing the manner in which public money is spent.