SIPTU President, Jack O’Connor has said that Budget 2018 is “a slick piece of political presentation but is morally indefensible.” He said: “In the midst of a housing and homeless crisis the government has chosen to deploy €335 million on token tax cuts, €461 million on continuing the VAT give away to bad employers in the hospitality sector and €1.5 billion on a totally unnecessary ‘pet project’ rainy day fund. “In total, this amounts to €2.29 billion which would otherwise build 12,000 local authority houses and which would actually make a difference. On top of that, developers are to be gifted €750 million or 60% of the cost of constructing 6000 houses. “It is the first time since the great collapse of 2008 that we had a chance to transform our grossly unequal society. Instead, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, backed by a coterie of right wing independents, have chosen to take us back to the old value system that precipitated the economic and financial crash in the first place.
SIPTU President describes Budget as morally indefensible
