Martin calls on Government to think again on VAT frontloading

Published on: 19 November 2011


Fianna Fáil Leader Micheál Martin TD has called on the Government to reverse its decision to load another 2%  on VAT this winter.

Speaking at the Fianna Fáil National Councillors’ Convention in Mullingar this morning he commented, “The single most important ingredient that we are missing at the moment for economic recovery is consumer confidence.  Until this week, all strands of political thought were agreed on this.

“Yesterday, Michael Noonan shattered this consensus by hiking tax on the very activity that we all want to encourage.  This morning I met with almost 200 councillors from all over the country.  In every community, the cry is the same – the Government needs to think again.  Small businesses in every town and village have been struggling for the last number of years, with many of them not making it.  As they face into another difficult winter, the very last thing that they were expecting or need is for the Government to make it even more difficult for customers to support them.

“The Government still has time to think again on this issue and reverse the decision.  I am calling on the Taoiseach to listen, to show leadership, and say ‘No’ to Michael Noonan.

He continued, “This Government claimed that job creation would be its central focus.  However, its record since coming to power has shown this to be another false promise.

“The raid on private pensions, the slashing of a job-intensive capital budget, the cutting of research and development investment and the attack on third and fourth level education show that while Fine Gael and Labour were very focussed on achieving power and very effective in attaining it, creating jobs is well down their agenda now that they have it.”

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