White questions Revenue on pension tax controversy

Revenue Chairwoman, Josephine Feehily, and officials from the Department of Social Protection faced tough questions last Wednesday, 11 January, from Alex White TD, Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform on the controversy surrounding pensions and potential tax liabilities.

Committee Chairman, Deputy White said: “Last week around 150,000 pensioners received letters from Revenue about their tax compliance, with 115,000 being told they will have to pay extra tax in 2012.

We are pleased that Revenue chairwoman Josephine Feehily and officials from the Department of Social Protection agreed to attend the committee meeting to discuss the handling of this issue, particularly the communication of the tax situation for some older people.

No-one will argue with the necessity for tax compliance on the part of all citizens. However, many pensioners were unsure of where they stood on their tax liability, and needed reassurance.

At the meeting, which sought to bring some clarity to these matters, Deputy White asked the officials involved how this situation had been so inadequately managed and questioned Revenue on its communications strategy. He said, “lessons would have to be learned for the future.”

Acknowledging Chairwoman Feehily’s public apology for the distress caused to the thousands of pensioners throughout the country, Deputy White also commended the efforts of the public servants who had worked quickly, and through last weekend, to assist members of the public with their immediate queries.

White welcomes moves by Dublin Bus to address Whitechurch Bus Service

Deputy Alex White today congratulated the Whitechurch Action Group who, after several weeks of negotiations with Dublin Bus facilitated by Alex White TD and Cllr. Paddy Cosgrave, have secured a morning and evening service of the new 15B. This will provide residents – workers and school children – with a direct service from Whitechurch to the City Centre through Rathmines.

Commenting on the outcome Deputy White said:

“The return, albeit limited, of this route, re-establishes a traditional route of access to town via Rathmines, which is so important to the Residents of Whitechurch.

I commend the patience and professionalism of the Residents who played a role in this Action group. Working with the Group on this issue, as I have since last August, has been a real demonstration of how effective we can be when we pull our resources together”

Deputy White also commended the work of the Dublin Bus Network Direct management group who has worked with the National Transport Authority to bring about this satisfactory result. Highlighting their flexibility and willingness to engage local concerns, Deputy White added:

“We all understand the tremendous budgetary pressures public services are placed under in these stringent economic times. However the Dublin Bus team has shown that with some creativity a better solution can be developed.”

Dublin Bus expect that the new service will commence Monday 19th December and will run as a Monday – Friday with an inbound service scheduled at 08.05 and outbound at 15.00, with a further outbound peak time bus at 16.53.

Alex on Today FM

My appearance as guest on The Sunday Supplement on Today FM is now up for those who want to listen back.

You can hear the show by clicking here.

White Welcomes the European Investment Bank Commitment to Provide EUR 90m for UCD Campus Redevelopment

Deputy Alex White has welcomed the support of the European Investment Bank in agreeing to fund redevelopments at University College Dublin as part of the government’s strategic support for the knowledge economy inIreland. The European Union’s long-term lending institution will provide a EUR 90m loan for the on-going transformation of campus facilities.

Commenting on this progressive development Deputy White said “The Government is committed to ensuring, where possible, that world class education and research facilities can help future generations contribute to the knowledge economy. The redevelopment of University College Dublin is an exciting development and will benefit students studying on a modern, vibrant and sustainable campus and foster a greater contribution to Ireland’s future.

“UCD’s Belfield Campus is one of the finest university facilities in Europe and a central driver of the greater Dublin South economy. Funding will be used to develop six buildings including the second phase of UCD’s Science Centre, construction of a new School of Law and refurbishment and construction of student accommodation.”

The UCD Campus Development Plan 2010–2015 will make the campus more compact, concentrating related activities and separating academic and leisure functions. The overall redevelopment aims to consolidate and enhance this position of pre-eminence by providing future generations with a sustainable, healthy, and living campus.

Development of the campus follows the Government’s efforts to increase investment in research and higher education, and will strengthen UCD’s role in an increasingly competitive academic environment. Deputy White commented that ‘the ability to locate both industry and academia on the same campus will help increase links between the university and key Irish companies’.

The new campus development will combine refurbishment of existing award winning buildings and provision of new facilities.

President Michael D Higgins

A president who will do us proud

Congratulations to my colleague Michael D, what a magnificent result. Over a million votes! A special thanks to the people of Dublin South who turned out in such volumes to support the Michael D candidacy, making Dublin South the fourth highest constituency supporting Michael D Higgins with just over 51% of the vote. I believe the Michael D Presidency can and will be a turning point in our country’s fortunes – an opportunity to renew and transform our Republic.

Why Vote for Michael D.

Michael D Higgins

Five years ago, Liberties Press published Causes for Concern: Irish politics, culture and society, a sometimes eclectic mix of Michael D.s journalism, academic writing and speeches over the years. The book is a testament to the range and breadth of Michael D.’s accomplishments as a politician, a public intellectual and, above all, as a great humanist. Unusually amongst public figures, Michael D. is at home in a range of communication modes from the rhetorical flourishes of the university lecturer, to the incisive observations of the detached columnist to the creative exegesis of the poet. As a political representative, opposition spokesman and Minister he could be relied upon to bring an intellectual acuity and vision to every brief in hand. Reading through the contributions in the book which extend over several decades of public life a few key themes emerge: respect for education and love of learning, the importance of promoting culture and the public sphere and the need to show solidarity with the oppressed.

In developing his world view, Michael D. has drawn on a rich seam of intellectual thinking but he returns repeatedly to the question of authenticity, and the goal of living an authentic life. Michael D.’s analysis of the ills of Irish society- clientelism, consumerism, materialism and technocratic determinism- are trenchant and prescient. He was a critic of the direction of socio-economic change in Ireland when it was neither popular nor profitable to be so. The kind of values that he has been espousing for decades- solidarity, community, democracy, justice, freedom and equality- are exactly the values to which we have now turned as we seek to rebuild our economy and society in the wake of the Celtic Tiger.

As Declan Kiberd so eloquently points out in the introduction to Michael D.’s book “In an age when the great ideological battles between capital and labour have been pronounced to be over, Higgins has kept ideas at the centre of political life; in a time of technocracy, he offers vision; and while others run for office on the basis of competence, he insists on an ethical perspective.”

Michael D. has spent a lifetime putting his considerable intellectual gifts to work in the service of the Irish people. He has used his voice courageously to speak out for those in Irish society and elsewhere who have been oppressed. He will indeed be a President of whom we can all be immensely proud.

Mary Corcoran and Alex White

Sovereignty with a purpose

There is a lot of debate about what should happen next in Europe, and a lot of talk too about lack of leadership from EU Heads of State. I don’t disagree with those who say that there’s a failure to take decisive action on the sovereign debt crisis. But it seems to me that the question is not so much whether the EU should take action; everyone agrees that “something has to happen”.

The real issue is what actions should be taken.

Whatever directions the policy shifts take are likely to be traumatic. For example, if there is a move towards closer integration on fiscal policy throughout the Eurozone, it is difficult to see how this can be achieved in any real sense without some Treaty change. And because there has been little or no effort to close the so-called democratic deficit throughout the Union, European voters understandably are going to be hugely suspicious of, and resistant to changes that they feel may be inimical to their immediate interests – especially at a time of economic hardship and recession.

I spoke this weekend at a conference organised by Feachtas, the People’s Movement and the Peace and Neutrality Alliance – specifically on the topic “The struggle to re-gain Irish sovereignty”. These are some of the points I made in my contribution.

It’s undoubtedly true that the EU/ECB/IMF deal has undermined our independence of action on fundamental economic decision-making. The spectacle of quarterly, monthly and even weekly supervision of our financial affairs by the Troika has definitely shaken our independence and our sovereignty.

We have to get out of this bind as quickly as we can. But we can’t do this by simply repudiating the bail-out deal and walking away. We have to re-negotiate as best we can, and seek to reduce and ameliorate the enormous debt burden that we face, while at the same time honouring the terms of this solemn agreement made by the State. We must resist the urgings of some to go further than what the agreement actually requires, for example in the area of labour market reforms.

Most importantly of all, we should start to use this period to have a proper debate – finally – about what kind of economic and social model we want to pursue in this country. The impetus for this kind of debate must come from within ourselves. It will involve asking whether we really want to maintain top-class public services – whether in education, health or public infrastructure. And if we do (as I believe we should) we will have to abandon the pretence that we can have such services without a realistic level of taxation. We can eliminate waste and introduce efficiencies. These are essential tasks. But when we have done this, we will still have to pay for public services and we have to face up to this in a more honest way.

On the question of “re-gaining” our sovereignty, I agree that this is a worthy and essential objective. But we need to think about what sovereignty means in our modern world. Global capital has long since abandoned any respect – or even recognition – of national boundaries or sovereignties. Insofar as sovereignty is relevant nowadays surely it’s the sovereignty of States as against rampant, unregulated capital markets; rather than the sovereignty of individual States as against each other, or even as against the European Union?

The question now is more whether States (and the democracies they are supposed to embody) can or will assert their sovereignty in the face of the markets, rather than assert their sovereignty vis-à-vis each other or vis-à-vis supranational organisations such as the EU.

Even Chancellor Merkel recognised this when she met the Pope last week in Berlin and commented:

“We spoke about the financial markets and the fact that politicians should have the power to make policy for the people and not be driven by the markets, and that this is a very, very big task in today’s times of globalization…”

Is it not a measure of where the world is that a major leader should find it necessary to state that politicians “should” have the power to make policy in these circumstances?

Mrs Merkel is right. It is indeed a very, very big task. But when will we begin to confront this. What will be the politics? If there is to be this re-assertion of democratic control when and where will it begin? This is also very much a challenge for the left and for social democratic parties, who in many ways retreated from the pursuit of these long-standing and noble objectives thirty years ago. Instead, they threw in their lot with the new conventional wisdom of light regulation, low taxes, and a “private good, public bad” attitude to public services.

So, I think that if we concentrate on national sovereignty in the narrow sense, we will pass over the opportunity to participate in, and shape a real debate about what kind of world we want to build from the ashes of this enormous crisis.

A real debate about how we fund our State. How we regulate activities from planning to banking to sewage treatment in rural Ireland. A real debate about our model of democracy.

This is where we need to start.

Divine Word get 5th Green Flag

Had a marvelous morning yesterday up with the kids, teachers and parents of the Divine Word National School, at Marley Grange, Rathfarnham. What an ‘antidote’ 400 plus smiling children’s faces can be! Afterwards we were treated to a magnificent tea and lovely homemade cakes. My thanks to all concerned for the warm welcome and congratulations to the children and the School’s Board of Management for a great achievement.

Alex on Today with Pat Kenny

This morning I was on Today with Pat Kenny to discuss the new Dail term.

You can listen to the discussion again by clicking here.  It is the first item on the show.

Alex on the Radio

Yesterday, I was on the panel of the Marian Finucane Show on RTE Radio 1 with Claire Byrne.

You can listen to the show again by clicking here.