An imminent VAT hike will hit poorer people three times as hard as the better paid, Unite, one of the country’s largest trade unions, has warned. Unite has demanded Finance Minister Michael Noonan to reconsider his position over the planned increase to 23%. Jimmy Kelly, Unite regional secretary, dismissed claims by the minister that the 2% jump would not hurt the less well off as much as others. “This is purely and simply wrong,” he said, pointing to research by the leading think tank ESRI which showed the impact of a 23% VAT rate. The union leader said the VAT hike would further stem consumer spending next year and lead to more business cutbacks, closures and job losses.
English: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/vat-hike
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This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. or the communications officer of the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.