As I See It Marianne Heron How I’d spend that tax windfall

What would you do if you had a huge nancial bonanza fall into your lap?

When it comes to big wins I think individuals are likely to behave in one of three ways.

ere are splurgers who spend the whole lot in one fell swoop before anyone else can get their hands on the money. ere are squirrels who store the loot away against a rainy day and there are people in between who can cope with a bit of deferred grati cation but want to have some fun too.

I’m in the latter category and, when imagining how the Government might spend the massive windfall in corporation tax of € 37 Bn from 2022-25 with more to come, I tend – as you do – to apply my own spending philosophy. I like the advice to Lotto winners to give themselves an initial treat to celebrate the win. e man is overburdened dealing with climate change and bicycle-riding urbanites don’t get the needs of commuters and rural communities who want not only decent public transport but proper park and ride facilities so they don’t have to bring cars into cities. en I would do my squirrelling. I like Michal McGrath’s plan to copy Norway and to have a sovereign wealth fund to deal with future contingencies. e number of people over 65 is set to double by 2051 and the ratio of employed people to retired folk will halve by then and the cost of pensions and health care is set to soar. Letting elders continue to work if they wish to would help too rather than driving everyone o the retirement cli like lemmings at 66. Paying o part of a loan makes sense when it comes to Ireland’s national debt of €226 billion where the interest rate at 2.5% is the highest it has been since 2014.,.

My treat would be to appoint a new Minister of Transport, taking the portfolio away from Eamon Ryan.

My next step would be to x the house. ere’s a saying “ if it ain’t broke don’t x it,” but, where the Coalition is concerned, it is broke and they don’t succeed in xing it because the tools they are using don’t work, especially when it comes to the big three housing, health and refugees. Take the planning process which is mired in red tape, creating a log jam in the housing crisis.