Just over a third of people would agree with higher taxes if it would mean better services, a study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found.<\/p>\n
The report said 35% believed that taxes were too high and 25% thought that taxes should remain at the current levels.<\/p>\n
Around 34% indicated they would agree with higher taxes if it meant more or better public services.<\/p>\n
This is the sixth-highest percentage among 27 countries in Europe.<\/p>\n
Public support for government action to reduce income inequality “has remained consistently high” and is above the European average.<\/p>\n
The study, conducted by the ESRI in partnership with Community Foundation Ireland, shows that support for reducing income inequality is stronger among women, younger people, those in a worse financial situation and the working class.<\/p>\n
It notes that “political ideology and perceptions of fairness” are also influential factors.<\/p>\n
The study found a higher level of support for government spending on older people and childcare for working families than for those who are unemployed.<\/p>\n
While the same pattern has been observed in most European countries, in Ireland the gaps between these three groups are significantly smaller.<\/p>\n
Although 64% of the population believe that ‘social benefits help prevent poverty’, further analysis by the ESRI indicated that this view was temporarily weakened after the launch of a government media campaign on welfare fraud in 2017.<\/p>\n
The study also found that those who lost their jobs or had their income reduced during the Covid-19 pandemic show higher support for reducing income inequality.<\/p>\n
ESRI Researcher and co-author of the report Dr Daniel Capistrano said the report shows a solid social support for enhancing the welfare state in Ireland.<\/p>\n
“Policymakers have a favourable environment to design and implement policies that meet the demands for better distribution of income, opportunities and living conditions in Ireland,” he said.<\/p>\n
Community Foundation Ireland CEO Denise Charlton said the study showed a sense of fairness and support for equality within society, even in times of challenge and complexities.<\/p>\n
“Something all of us should be proud of. These important findings will inform our future work as a philanthropic hub with an equality mission, as well as our 5,000 community, voluntary and charitable partners,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just over a third of people would agree with higher taxes if it would mean better services, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-432106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}