Budget 2020: "Business as usual in the face of inequality and climate catastrophe"
RISE TD Paul Murphy, a member of the Oireachtas Finance Committee, described Budget 2020 as a regressive budget copper-fastening inequality in society, which continues with big business as usual in the face of climate catastrophe.
Budget 2020 is a tale of two budgets. If you are wealthy, if you’re a developer, or a major corporation this budget will benefit you. If you are a low or middle income worker, part of a rural family, or are affected by the housing crisis, this budget will leave you worse off. The budget further exacerbates the inequality in society - placing the burden of Brexit and climate change on working class people, while continuing handouts and give-aways to the rich and wealthy.
The carbon tax is an eco-austerity measure masquerading as environmental policy. It puts the burden on the shoulders of ordinary people, while letting the big polluting corporations who are most responsible for carbon emissions off the hook again. The government is right to fear a backlash against it. People were hammered to pay for the financial crisis of the banking system, they won’t carry the burden again so that major corporations can continue to pollute and profit.
The carbon tax is an ineffective weapon in tackling climate change. One study that looked at 19 jurisdictions that implemented carbon taxes found that it would take over 110 years to reach an 80% emissions-reduction based on a carbon tax! Allowing the wealthy and big corporations to carry on a business-as-usual approach means sacrificing the interests of the planet and of working class people.
Meanwhile, hand-outs have been delivered to developers through the continuation of the so-called ‘Help to Buy’ scheme. In reality, this is a ‘Help to Profit’ scheme for the developers, who lobbied hard for the introduction and then retention of this scheme. It transfers public funds through the hands of first time buyers into the pockets of major developers. High earners will benefit from the extension of the SARP and FED schemes, while big business will benefit from more corporate welfare as a Brexit-bailout package is prepared for them.
Meanwhile, a measly increase in the minimum wage for the lowest paid workers in society appears to have been delayed. If you are one of the tens of thousands of people affected by the housing crisis you have been forgotten about in this budget - instead you have the Minister for Housing intervening in a Dublin City Council vote last night on O’Devaney Gardens to protect the interests of developers. The budget contains a minimal increase in investment in social housing, while delivering yet more handouts to landlords in the form of HAP and RAS payments.
It’s clear the government isn’t listening about climate change, when it seeks to plough ahead with gas exploration and the building of fossil fuel infrastructure like the Shannon LNG terminal. It’s ignoring the science, it’s ignoring working people, it’s ignoring the young people going on strike for their future. I encourage people to mobilise on the streets, to join the protests of groups like Extinction Rebellion outside the Dail right now and at the rally this evening at the Garden of Remembrance, to demand a just transition, which means working class people and the most vulnerable are not made to pay for this capitalist crisis.
To tackle climate change and ensure a just transition for the vast majority of people in society we need a Green New Deal with socialist policies. That means free, green and frequent public transport, a green jobs programme, including in renewable energy, retrofitting and care jobs, a transition to a sustainable model of agriculture, a four-day week without loss of pay, and public ownership under democratic control of the key sections of the economy to enable a plan for a rapid just transition to a zero carbon economy by 2030.