Richard O'Donoghue

Overall sentiment: 0.01
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I am going to start with the auto-enrolment pension scheme. A pension scheme is good if it is introduced at the right time. To get down to brass tacks, for those who do not know, auto-enrolment means 1.5% for an employer and 1.5% for an employee. After six months, the employee can opt out of the 1.5% if he or she does not want to pay it. Is there any extra benefit for somebody in their 40s, 50s or 60s? What about people who are coming up to 64, 65 or 66? Is there any extra benefit for them in their pension if they pay into the auto-enrolment scheme? The answer I got in that regard was "No". If a person wants to pay a pension now, he or she will get nothing extra when he or she reaches pension age. Auto-enrolment should be brought in at a low base for young people and all the way up the line. That is the case 100%. If people have already been paying their taxes and everything else and they are due their statutory pension and the Minister wants them to pay into a pension out of their wages now, it is wrong that they are only going to get the same amount of money and nothing extra. There has to be a carrot, but the Minister did not allow for a carrot. Those people are employed and are paying their taxes at the moment. I agree that auto-enrolment is a good thing for young people. We had to start sometime. However, for the people who have been paying through the years and who are my age and older - there are a lot of them in this Chamber who are in the same situation I am in - there would be no extra benefit for when they get to the age of 66 or 67. Where is the carrot for hard-working people? Nothing extra is going to be given to them. That is the problem I have with auto-enrolment. I do not have an issue with it as an employer, but I have been talking to employees who do have an issue with it. Auto-enrolment is also going to drive inflation because any business model is based on the need to make a percentage rate. We have seen what happens with food produce and transport networks across this country when there are increases. If the model changes, the cost is added on. Three years ago, a cup of coffee cost €1.50. Now the price is close to €4. In places, it is €4.20. Inflationary costs are added on to a business base. Businesspeople understand that. I am a businessperson. Again, the consumer will pay for this. The employer pays, so the employer has got to add it on. Employees say they will not take a wage cut, which is how they look at it. Many employers will pay it to keep employees in case they are thinking of going somewhere else. That is one side of it. The other side is when we look at the hospitality sector, which has had three wage increases for the lower earners. Those three wage increases were again passed on to the consumer. Then we got the reduction in VAT from 13.5% to 9%, which was great, but it will not be introduced until June or July of next year. That is six or seven months down the road. What did the Government do in terms of a sneaky tax? The tax on renting a room has risen from 13.5% to 23%. The Government added 10% to the rent-a-room tax. It said it would reduce VAT by 4%, but the tax for those who have conferences or anything like that has gone from 13.5% to 23%. Who ends up paying again? The consumer. When is the Government going to give something back to people who are working? The working person in this country has no problem paying for the people who cannot work, for example, those who are disabled. All they want is a reward. By reducing the USC in the budget and not changing the tax base, the Government has already taxed workers this year. Everything the Government is doing is on the tax base; it is doing nothing for employees, employers or consumers. All it is doing is increasing the cost of living.

Sentiment score: 0.02

Hear, hear.

Sentiment score: 0.00