At the moment the government funds a lot of things that you could classify as non core …i am not saying they should not be done but are not as core to irish society as the health service , roads ,teachers etc.
some examples would be
Foreign Aid
Irish NGO Funding
Community Projects
Sports Funding
I am sure there are others
I always think a lot of people always campaign on these issue but when they campaign they mean that other people should pay for them.
With modern technology it should be easy to customise people income tax rates by giving people the option to chose what rate they pay for each category for a year
Foreign aid ( anywhere between .25 and 3.00% can be give from your salary.) for example
similar choices for a few other categories
The aid agencies always tell us people support paying the aid …let them show by choosing to pay tax for it ,also when pompous people lecture about these topics we could ask them to demonstrate/prove their own commitment.
certainly a lot of foreign aid is channeled via Concern and Goal etc…and probably used quite well.
A lot of the local NGO provide services where the state might otherwise such as barnardos , enable ireland etc.
The irritable thing for me would be the advocacy groups who get funding from the government and then spend theirtime lobbying the government. national womens council being the best example.
Also i met loads of people who crusaded for the FGM legislation in Ireland …but i am not sure it was ever a real issue here …but how much did it cost us to put on the statute books.
It should be illegal for a political organisation like Age Action Ireland, Ruhama, Older and Bolder etc to use taxpayers money to lobby for changes in the law.
I would be in favour of making health and prsi opt in/opt out.
It’s scandalous that many people have to pay twice for healthcare and its even more so that self played pay large amounts of prsi (sometimes more than employees) and get nothin out of it. I’d much rather have the money and save it so that I never need to rely on welfare (not that they would give it to me anyway).
A more acceptable, if less dramatic approach to doctor arising taxes, would be to divide your taxes into groups ie instead of 41% income tax it would be 10% education, 10% health and 10% general government expense. People could vote ever year or two years to increase, keep the same or decrease each group of tax. It is then up to the government to decide how to spend their budget. If the majority vote to cut health spending, then they can’t complain if another hospital closes or hospital visit fees increase. Similarly, people who vote for extra goodies (such as free third level education) are aware that this will increase their education tax accordingly eg by 2%.
Of course, neither of these things will ever happen but it would be great if they did.
Its little pet projects for glorified clerical adminstrators to think that they have the ability to change the world. Those organisations just appropriate money, the appropriators always forget from where the money is coming from.
to the OP: opt in would be nice if you have to fund the service in another avenue if one opts out. Like health, pay X for govt run bogstandard health cover or pay for private coverage. It does work in other parts of the world*. We’re living in a world where the benefits are being cut , children’s allowance , dwindling company pensions coughcough and those who benefitted most (ie those who still have massive equity in their gaffs) from these are walking away with a full package.
