Howlin: Decision not to tax rich 'a source of regret'
Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin says he regrets the decision not to increase tax on higher earners in December's Budget.
Writing in today's Sunday Business Post, the Labour Party Minister said that it is a source of regret to the Government that they could not protect all payments in the Budget - but added that it was as fair as it could have been.
United Left Alliance TD Richard Boyd Barrett has described all this internal Budget wrangling between Fine Gael and Labour as "shadowboxing", however.
He said that it suits Labour to make out that Fine Gael are the party who wanted to implement the harsh cuts.
"In a desperate attempt to save their collapsing fortunes, collapsing support in the polls, they want to present it that they're actually fighting an internal battle against Fine Gael," he said.
"But in reality of course, Brendan Howlin, Eamon Gilmore, Pat Rabbitte, are at the absolute centre of imposing Government policy as it is, which most people, rightly as far as I'm concerned, see as cruelly unjust."
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