Binding - Village Magazine

18March 2015

NEWS IRISH TAX

AX policy poses options to pri-

oritise one sector of society over

another. As with all choices, there

are inevitably winners and losers.

Professor Philip Alston, UN special rap-

porteur on extreme poverty and human

rights, has ﬁrmly linked tax policy with

human rights. He has posed this chal-

lenge squarely in the Irish context.

Last month the Central Statistics

Oﬃce released data showing ,

children are living in material depriva-

tion. Citing these ﬁgures, Alston argued

that this and other pockets of deep

poverty across Ireland are the direct

consequence of conscious decisions

made by key actors who have chosen to

prioritise other goals. He was speaking

at a Christian Aid conference on the sub-

ject of the human-rights impact of tax

and ﬁscal policy.

Christian Aid’s experiences in coun-

tries of the global south tell a similar

story. Resource-rich but capital-poor

Governments oﬀer lucrative tax incen-

tives to companies to locate in their

country. This is because they are forced

to compete to attract foreign direct

investment into their country. Each

incentive comes at a cost as money is

diverted away from essential social

services. In Sierra Leone, for example,

the cost of tax incentives in  was

eight times that of the health budget.

This is happening in a country where

half the population lives below the bread

line.

Invariably whether in Ireland or the

global south it is the poorest and the

marginalised who experience the worst

impacts of such tax policies.

Both Alston and his predeces-

sor as special rapporteur, Magdalena

Sepulveda, have questioned Ireland’s

commitment to these economic and

social rights. Alston observed growing

reluctance in Ireland to accept that there

are minimum human rights of access to

housing, health and food. Sepulveda’s

 report highlighted that, as signa-

tories to the UN Covenant on Economic,

Social and Cultural Rights (UNCESCR),

the Irish state has an obligat ion to ensure

that citizens’ rights are protected even

during times of economic hardship.

She wrote, “States must devote the

maximum available resources to ensure

progressive realisation of all economic,

social and cultural rights by its popula-

tion, as expeditiously and eﬀectively as

possible”.

The tension appears to lie mainly in

ideological diﬀerences. Cuts to carers

allowances for example were deemed

a necessary evil by the Government –

cuts that should be borne bravely, but

that would be temporary in nature and

would be readjusted when the books

were balanced. A human rights-based

approach to tax and ﬁscal policy could

not pursue that course of action, even

in times of great economic challenges.

Rights are not dispensable, to be traded

away during challenging times.

Budgeting from a rights perspective

obliges a state to prioritise diﬀerently,

to put the rights of citizens ﬁrst and to

allocate resources accordingly. This is

not simply rhetoric. As signatories to the

UNCESCR, the Irish we are duty bound

as a state to ensure that this happens.

Sepulveda linked this to tax policy.

She expressed concern “about the low

level of taxation in Ireland, lower than

most other European countries. Low

levels of domestic taxation revenue can

be a major obstacle to a State’s ability to

meet obligations to realise economic,

social and cultural rights”.

Last year the Department of Finance

launched a public consultation paper on

‘Spillover Analysis – Possible Impacts

of Irish tax System on Developing

Economies’. This is an encouraging ini-

tiative, and suggests a willingness in the

Department to be seen to be doing the

right thing.

Irish tax and ﬁscal policy should be

subject to periodic scrutiny to ensure

they conform with the international

human rights standards to which Ire-

land is a party.

Inevitably this will raise some diﬃcult

questions for the Government. However,

until economic and social rights are rec-

ognised as inalienable and subject to the

same protection as the more traditional

civil and political rights, an uncomfort-

able gap will persist between what we

say as a State and what we actually do

as evidenced in our crucial tax and ﬁscal

policies. •

Sorley McCaughey is Head of Advocacy and

Policy with Christian Aid Ireland

UN economic and social rights require humanitarian approach to Irish tax policy.

By Sorley McCaughey

Binding

Sepulveda’s

2011 report

highlighted

that, as

signatories to

the UNCESCR,

Ireland must

ensure rights

are protected

even during

economic

hardship

“

they’re economic and social too