The government is stunned by a stinging new report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which pressures the Irish administration to target children, pensioners, students and home-owners in a further set of cutbacks.
The IMF, the international monetary watchdog, recommends a host of new taxes and cutbacks which would hurt ordinary households in the pocket.
This comes as Finance Minister Michael Noonan, who has been forced to slash billions off the Irish economy to repay bailouts since coming to power 18 months ago, strives to find another €3.5 billion when he announces the budget in December.
The IMF wants the government to implement a range of tax increases and spending cuts which go well beyond what it had planned for the budget.
There has been a suggestion of a property tax at least double that under consideration by ministers. The IMF also is pushing for cuts to pensions and means-testing of universal payments like child benefit which have already been fiercely resisted by Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton.
The IMF wants Noonan to reduce the old age pension. This would knock €11 off the average weekly contributory pension payment.
It wants an annual property tax of 0.5 percent of the value of a house. This is twice the government’s target and would push property tax to €835 on an average house worth €167,000.
The report from the IMF also wants changes to child benefit, either by means-testing or income tax, changes to the medical card regime to hand out fewer cards, the re-introduction of college fees and a system of bank loans for students, and closer scrutiny of the Croke Park Agreement.
Noonan, who on Tuesday began a tour of European capitals to help secure a deal on Ireland’s bank debt, moved to play down the IMF demands. He said they were “simply advice.”
“It is not mandatory to accept any of the advice. Of course, it is well-founded advice coming from the IMF,” he said at Fine Gael party’s two-day think-in in Westport, Co. Mayo.
He said he wouldn’t intend making a proposal to government that the property tax be set as high as the IMF suggestion.
The government can afford to ignore IMF recommendations when they appear in an annual review. But the suggestions are likely to form the basis of future negotiations if the government fails to meet the targets set out in the bailout agreement.
The IMF, one of three organizations that make up the troika that organized Ireland’s bailout in 2010, said in its annual report on Ireland that the government must find ways to save money as the economy slows faster than expected.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.seanomelb | Sep 14, 2012, 02:09 AM EDT
Damn gates of the asylum were left open again be off!! angrypaddy you bigoted termite.
angrypaddy | Sep 14, 2012, 12:51 AM EDT
You bought into the Euro,now you pay.remember who paid to build all your roads(the eec)when you joined you were to drunk to read the fine print Ireland has become the dumping ground for the excreta of Africa and eastern Europe
mairint | Sep 13, 2012, 10:05 PM EDT
With a civil tongue I suggest that Minister Noonan look at the people who elected him and not bow in adoration of the IMF 'God'. This is part of the U.N./ IMF world control of governments who might show a bit of independence in how they run their countries. Throw in the big of pop control too.
seanomelb | Sep 13, 2012, 06:55 PM EDT
Tell the IMF to F#ck off,enough is enough.
Searlit | Sep 13, 2012, 01:03 PM EDT
It's so difficult to move into the future with the IMF trying to hold the world back. I'm not shocked, yet stunned to hear the minister say "... it is well-founded advice coming from the IMF."
ReturnedYank | Sep 13, 2012, 11:10 AM EDT
The IMF is as useless as the Irish government. More cuts and taxes -- and not one iota of reform. Sickening.
FastEddy | Sep 13, 2012, 11:03 AM EDT
" ... we should be out on the streets in vast numbers and setting fire to government buildings..........enough is enough........its time to uprise ..." Agreed! Just don't burn down any libraries or police stations ... You are going to need the heat to arrest and expose the "progressives" in Irish government to the bright light of historical condemnation. The pen is mightier than the torch ...
FastEddy | Sep 13, 2012, 10:58 AM EDT
" ... the lethal antigrowth prescriptions of the IMF, which is addicted to such Depression-era quackeries as currency devaluations and higher taxes. ..." - Steve Forbes editorial of 8/25/2012 Now that the International Monetary Fund has its hooks in Irish government, it will never let go. The mad pitbulls of "progressive" slash and burn economics will forever try to force Ireland into a slave state, a slave to the cruel punishments of double taxation and mutually masochistic self induced inflation. All inflation is caused by government, government prints the money and government can too easily print too much. The IMF should be run out of town, promptly, for even implying that it is Irish taxpayers fault for any economic problems ... the "progressive" fascistic IMF is the evil culprit, not the taxpayers.
michaelcollins | Sep 13, 2012, 10:22 AM EDT
we should be out on the streets in vast numbers and setting fire to government buildings..........enough is enough........its time to uprise
WoundedKnee | Sep 13, 2012, 09:29 AM EDT
Ireland should bill the EU for the money it spends of migrants from other EU countries, places like Latvia, Lithuania etc. The cost of just one thing--the education of children from these countries and teaching them English--accounts for hundreds of millions of euros. It is Irish taxpayers who have been picking up this tab for the past decade or more, and they're sick of it. Ireland has never received even one word of thanks for this from the governments of places such as Lithuania, Poland etc., nor from the EU hierarchy itself.