Sinn Féin plan will kill jobs

Dublin Bay South Labour Party TD Minister Kevin Humphreys has said Sinn Féin’s jobs plan will lead to jobs being lost, not created.

Minister Humphreys commented: “In order for jobs to be created the economy has to be managed responsibly. Sinn Féin’s jobs plan shows they are utterly incapable of doing this.

“Sinn Féin wants to narrow the country’s tax base by abolishing the property tax and water charges, while front-loading taxation on workers.

“Under Sinn Féin’s plans there would be a third rate of income tax of 47% on earnings over €100,000. Taken together with PRSI and USC, this proposal would raise the top rate of tax to 59% for a PAYE worker and to 62% for a self-employed person – the highest in Europe. Under Sinn Féin’s plans almost 1.5 million people will continue to pay USC – this includes anyone earning over €19,572 per annum.

“Sinn Féin is also running in this election alongside their Right2 Change allies whose policies would endanger the jobs of 150,000 multinational workers in Ireland.  

 “Labour has built up a sustainable tax base to fund our public services and we have made it our number one priority in government to create jobs. Our cuts to USC are progressive and targeted at low and middle income workers.

“When we got elected to government our critics doubted us when we said by 2016 we would reduce unemployment to single digit figures. Unemployment now stands at 8.6%. 1,000 jobs were being lost each week under Fianna Fáil. Now over 1,100 jobs are being created each week. 

“This election presents people with an important choice: do we continue with building a strong economy and creating a decent society by re-electing Labour to Government or do we risk throwing it all away by handing over the keys to Government Buildings to Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil who have shown they cannot be trusted to manage the public finances.”