Varadkar: "It's not the state's responsibility (to provide a home and an education)"

Peter Flynt

On The Six O'Clock Show Leo Varadkar stated the following earlier today regarding healthcare, education provision and having a home:

"When they're old I'm gonna make sure they're looked after (his parents).....I'll ensure my nephews and nieces are looked after - they've a home and an education. I don't actually think that's the state's responsibility to be honest. . . "

What exactly does Leo Varadkar think the responsibility of the state is given that 50%+ tax is paid at such a low rate in Ireland?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1764728142936109211

Witcher

Nobody is paying 50% tax and certainly not '50%+'.

Furthermore it's not the state's responsibility, otherwise we'd all down f'ing tools and get free houses.

buried

When he says "the state", he clearly means him. This is the same gadge who likes to yabber on about how much Kylie Minogue made such a difference to his existence.

He's right, he should be responsible for nothing. Because he's literally a child.

Peter Flynt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851114#Comment_121851114

What does PAYE, USC & PRSI add up to beyond €40,000?

It's the state's responsibility to provide for housing.

Norrie Rugger Head

Housing crisis explained right there

Ha Long Bay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851154#Comment_121851154

17%

https://salaryaftertax.com/ie/salary-calculator

Peter Flynt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851190#Comment_121851190

Do you know what the word beyond means?

Ha Long Bay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851199#Comment_121851199

Is €41000K beyond €40000?

Strumms

I just really wish that the people of Dublin West would ninja this individual into the political history books.

so not the state’s responsibility that people have access to healthcare, housing or an education….? Maybe Leo might put his mind to describing what responsibilities that state does have towards its people and citizens…

Because we pay an awful lot of tax that goes on education, healthcare, housing etc… so might be nice that Irish people can feel they can benefit from that..

id say Leo isn’t long for the world of politics, his mask is slipping. Some of us saw behind it from earlier on, others a lot more gullible.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851154#Comment_121851154

20% rate of income tax exists for income up to €42,000.

Nobody pays effective 50% tax in Ireland.

RoboRat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851247#Comment_121851247

On a salary of €100k, tax due is €36,378, so 36.4%. Obviously there are different bands at various thresholds in that salary, but you're correct for 99% of the population.

If you earned a million, you would be slightly over 50% at €504,603.

The J Stands for Jay

...

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851230#Comment_121851230

It seems to me that whenever someone becomes taoiseach, their electorate so love having their local TD be taoiseach that they will constantly reflect them, no matter how terrible they are. There seems to be a similar, though not as pervasive, effect for ministers.

beggars_bush

It's a comment from a financially secure individual from a family who doesn't rely on the state education, health or housing services

Whereas most of the population....

Scipri0

His family and many in government won't need it, but in the meantime they'll gladly sell out us and this country to set up themselves and their families. At the moment, his government and its policies are holding many people back in life and denying them the chance to have a house of their own or to start families.

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851190#Comment_121851190

By that calculator anyone over 800,000 will have less than 50% take-home pay. That’s ignoring motor tax, property tax and VAT.

On the other hand, I don’t know if many would earn a PAYE salary that high without using tax loopholes to bring it down, or set up a company and contract out their work to avail of lower rates of tax and write off expenses.

So though mathematically possible to pay more than 50% of gross pay to PAYE, USC and PRSI I doubt there’s many if any doing so.

A more relevant salary might be 80,000, which by that calculator would have 55,000 take-home pay, so 32.5% in taxes is what a lot of people would be paying. Most would probably pay into a private pension to avoid some tax.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851154#Comment_121851154

Good bye credibility in just two sentences! You can’t even get to 50% even by adding none tax items to the mix and do you even know where you might come up with a commitment to housing? There actually is one put its not exactly housing and I very much doubt you know where it is.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851561#Comment_121851561

No it’s a reflection of the majority of the voters in the country. I don’t agree with the FG/FF politics, but I don’t also play the silly buggers game of pretending that politicians don’t reflect the preferences of their voters either.

Peter Flynt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851207#Comment_121851207

€1000 of it is.....all of which would be taxed at 50%+

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851577#Comment_121851577

Somebody on €80k in 2024 has €25,973 deducted in Income Tax,USC and PRSI. That's less than 33%. Where are you getting 45% from?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851624#Comment_121851624

Completely incorrect. That €1,000 is charged to 20% income tax, 4% PRSI and 4% USC.

I think the problem is that so many people who whinge about tax can't even do the basic math to comprehend what they actually pay.

Peter Flynt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851637#Comment_121851637

Apologies. I meant above €42,000. I didn't realise the little pixies had the threshold recently increased.

Now let's discuss Varadkar's comments where he feels the state is not responsible for education and provision of housing. Want to do that?

Former Former Former

People surely know that his words have been twisted out of all context here.

Like, he’s very clearly saying that families should care for family members in the first instance, and the state steps in when needed.

If he said the opposite, that it’s the state’s job to look after people, the same cnuts would be saying that he’s trying to break up families and big government wants to run our lives.

the level of sheer hatred and stupidity on here is terrifying, and it’s even more terrifying how easily people can be fooled and whipped up into a frenzy by a thirty second clip that’s so obviously been taken out of all context

Peter Flynt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851660#Comment_121851660

There's nothing ambiguous in what LV stated. I literlly quoted him word for word. He went on a monologue on how he'd look after his own family before stating "I don't actually think that's the state's responsibility to be honest. . . ".

If he doesn't feel the state is responsible for something like education he shouldn't be in politics.

sameoldname

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851637#Comment_121851637

Why should facts get in the way of outrage? Also, it's pretty clear that a lot of the whingebags on here don't actually earn enough to pay the high taxation they so bitterly complain about.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851658#Comment_121851658

Pixies?

The standard tax rate band was been increased several times in recent years, and hopefully will continue to do so.

A person like yourself who is so keenly versed on tax surely keeps a close eye on these things?

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851666#Comment_121851666

You’ve twisted it out of all context.

The guy should be allowed speak his mind without hardline Catholic fundamentalists or far right lunatics tearing him apart or burning down hotels in “protest”

average_runner

Yes we are. Income tax, prsi, universal tax, carbon tax, property tax, vat, tax on insurance, tax on healthcare. Brings it over 50%

Peter Flynt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851679#Comment_121851679

He's allowed to speak his mind, of course. Shame he's a hypocrite as LV and his parents availed of fully funded/state supported primary school as Varadkar attended primary school in Blanchardstown (where he grew up).

Varadkar likes to play the tory boy - it must go down well with the dopes in FG.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851686#Comment_121851686

What tax on healthcare? Healthcare is exempt from VAT.

"Universal tax" doesn't exist.

Thankfully you've avoided the usual "road tax" trope, but don't forget about motor tax.

Would you consider the TV licence a tax too. What about voluntary contributions at schools?

What tax on insurance? Insurance is exempt from VAT. Maybe you're referring to insurance levies?

You could be more specific in your tax rant.

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851636#Comment_121851636

Distracted while typing, meant 55k not 55%, edited now to correct, thanks.

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851114#Comment_121851114

After 42k in 2024, the marginal direct tax rate on any extra income is close to 50%.

Very few countries apply such a rate at such a low starting point.

It is bonkers crazy that workers on below-average earnings face close to a 50% marginal tax rate.

And before anybody says it, marginal rates do matter!!

Geuze

Gerard Brady of IBEC produced this graph, to show how the SRCOP has not kept up with wages.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851696#Comment_121851696

he's a hypocrite as LV and his parents availed of fully funded/state supported primary school

lol, you’re holding him accountable for a decision his parents made when he was four years old?

I take it all back, perfectly reasonable debate and not at all crazy hate-fuelled lunacy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851724#Comment_121851724

How else are we to pay for the "forever homes" and the rest of the "entitlements"?

No PAYE earner pays 50% of their earnings to the state in income tax/USC/PRSI. If they do, they are doing something very very wrong.

average_runner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851710#Comment_121851710

Alot of people get private Healthcare through work and are BIK on it, so that is another tax.

Ok Universal is the USC

Motor tax is another one, thk you.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851768#Comment_121851768

You do understand that if your employer paid you the extra €1,500 as salary instead of providing the medical insurance, you'd pay tax on that salary? So why would you get €1,500 worth of medical insurance free of tax?

Don't forget to claim your medical insurance tax credit by the way.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851696#Comment_121851696

If Varadker was proposing removing free access to primary and secondary education then you could call him a hypocrite, but he isn't so what are you going on about?

average_runner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851778#Comment_121851778

I never said we shouldn't be paying tax on it, just said it was a tax, which it is.

TinyMuffin

Leo and the rest of them should read the proclamation of independence. Not be letting foreign vulture funds buy land and apartment blocks at the expense of Irish citizens. And Brussels telling Irish landowners what they can and can’t do with their own land.

We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. 

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851154#Comment_121851154

It's the state's responsibility to provide for housing.

So I took out a mortgage for nothing?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851839#Comment_121851839

Leo and the rest of them should read the proclamation of independence. Not be letting foreign vulture funds buy land and apartment blocks at the expense of Irish citizens.

Where in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic does it say that we should prohibit foreign businesses trading wiht Ireland?

Under which specific piece of legislation would stop them buying our land and appartment blocks?

And Brussels telling Irish landowners what they can and can’t do with their own land.

The city? Or do you mean the EU and EC which we are an extremely content member of? I'm not sure if you are involved in agriculture but if so, are you happy receiving your "free money"?

As for what people can and can't do with their land, we have planning laws, pollution laws, wildlife/hedgecutting laws, etc so why have you a problem with another law which will help protect our green image?

Former Former Former

The proclamation?

Give me strength

Peregrinus

Guys, guys — enough with the bickering about tax. Whether the state does or does not have responsibilities in the areas of housing and education doesn't depend at all on what tax rates are.

For the record, Ireland collects about 37.5% of modified Gross National Income in tax. That's pretty close to the EU average. However compared to other EU countries we collect a relatively greater share in income tax, and a relatively lesser share in social insurance contributions (or equivalent). We also have lower property taxes than the EU average.

As to the State's responsibilities, we'd do far better to look at the Constitution than to bicker over claims about tax rates. The State does have a responsiblity with regard to education; the Constitution is quite explicit about this. It beggars belief that Varadkar wouldn't know this.

It has less to say about housing, providing in Art 40.5 simply that a citizen's dwelling is inviolable and cannot be forcibly entered save in accordance with law. Art 41 recognises that a family needs to have a home, but says nothing about who is to provide it. The State's duty to safeguard the family presumably provides a constitutional basis for state policy promoting the provision of housing, but there isn't a lot of detail there.

But, whether it's constitutionally required or not, the State always has had a role in the provision of housing. We inherited this role from the UK in 1922, and greatly expanded it in the decades that followed. The notion that the state has no responsibility in this are is, um, a novel one.

(And, if Varadkar really thinks that the State has no responsibility for the provision of education, which is demonstrable rubbish, his views on whether the State has a role in the provision of housing won't command much persuasive authority.)

Floppybits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851230#Comment_121851230

I believe he has shut up shop in Dublin West so he might be moving to a new constituency.

MegamanBoo

I think what often gets missed on the debate on tax rates in Ireland is what we end up having to pay for private health costs here.

Private health insurance is an optional extra in other European countries.

In Ireland it's basically essential if you can afford it, and takes a very sizable chunk of peoples salaries.

After that there's many more smaller examples of sneaky stealth taxes ('voluntary' school contributions as a perfect example), all of which add up.

alias no.9

Leo has never been a good communicator but surely the primary responsibility to provide a home and education does indeed rest with the family and typically the parents. The state has a responsibility to make sure both are available, in certain circumstances to provide supports and in exceptional circumstances, to step in, in place of the family.

Think about what it would mean if the state were responsible for providing a home and education for your kids, would that be a benevolent version of an industrial school?

Even at a much less extreme version, does the state get to decide where you live and what school your kids go to?

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851998#Comment_121851998

The state having to provide access to housing is very different from having to provide housing.

If the state had any fixed obligations to house people it would be chaos - it's good that we do have social housing etc, but if there was some mandate on govt to house everyone we would collapse

Francis McM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058338990/varadkar-its-not-the-states-responsibility-to-provide-a-home-and-an-education

He thinks is it the responsibility of the taxpayers to pay for his private jet jaunts to Europe, huge pay and pensions for him and his fellow politicians and staff ( of all parties etc). Him and his nephews and nieces will be well looked after. It is what we pay so much tax for, so much vehicle import duty, higher vat than the UK and most of Europe, VAT on housing here ( in N.I. and Britain there is not VAT on housing ), you name it, we are continually being screwed.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/taoiseach-flew-eastern-europe-private-31871849

And like a frog being boiled, we do not even realise it. SF or FF or the greens would be no better.

SEPT 23 1989

Every child should have a home and and access to an education as a basic start to life in this very rich country

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121852123#Comment_121852123

They do.

That seems to have been overlooked here.

Ivor_Guddon

when my parents had kids in late 70's / 80's they got no help from the government , now its just a welfare state

handouts for everything etc makes me sick tbh

get rewarded for spreading the legs and having kids ( by all means help ) but not a house , no incentive to work , vicious cycle as the kids see mammy getting everything etc

if you knew you'd not get a home by having a kid , you'd think twice about having one ( yes i know alot still waiting on housing etc )

you are have to make your own way , don't expect others to food your bill