Eoin O'Malley: Removing Ursula von der Leyen would allow EU states to take back control
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Extra.ie
33 minutes ago
- Extra.ie
Irish are evenly split on whether taxes should be lower or higher
More than a third of Irish taxpayers believe taxes are too high and should be lowered even if it means fewer or diminished public services. The results of a new European Commission survey on public attitudes to taxation reveal 35% of Irish people favour lower taxes. However, attitudes are split almost evenly on the issue, as 34% stated they prefer higher taxes if it means more or better public services. A further 25% said they thought that both taxes and public services should stay at the same level. Pic: Getty Images The Eurobarometer poll surveyed the attitudes of almost 25,800 citizens across the 27 EU member states on taxation, including over 1,000 people in the Republic. Asked what taxes should be reduced first, two-thirds of Irish respondents (67%) said those on wages, followed by those on housing (24%). Only 17% of Irish respondents said they would support a reduction in VAT, the second lowest rate within the EU, where the average is 37%. The relatively low level of support for a reduction in VAT rates among Irish taxpayers is interesting, given the long-running campaign by the tourism industry for the VAT rate on the sector to be lowered from 13.5% to 9%. Pic: Shutterstock Conversely, when asked what taxes should be increased to pay for public services, almost half (49%) said taxes on tobacco and alcohol, followed by taxes on investment income (33%) and taxes on business (26%). In general, Irish respondents were largely in agreement that people in the Republic paid taxes in proportion to their income and wealth, with 76% holding such a view. The Eurobarometer poll also revealed that 47% of us found filing their tax returns relatively easy. Income tax was identified as the most complicated tax to calculate and pay by 30% of Irish respondents. Pic: Shutterstock On a negative note, only 36% said they believed they received adequate support for filing their tax returns – the fourth lowest rate in the EU – while half said support levels were inadequate. The report also highlighted that two-thirds of Irish taxpayers (67%) would favour a minimum level of tax being imposed on the wealthiest individuals based on their wealth and not just their income, with 22% claiming such a policy would have too many drawbacks in terms of loss of competitiveness and flight of capital. More than three-quarters of us (77%) also supported large multinational companies being required to pay a minimum amount of tax in the country where they operate. A majority of Irish taxpayers were positive towards taxation being used for environmental purposes, with 62% supportive of using taxes to discourage the usage or consumption of environmentally harmful goods and polluting energy sources. However, 39% of Irish people said they would oppose taxes on air travel being increased – the fourth highest rate in the EU after Cyprus, Estonia and Malta – although a narrow majority of EU taxpayers would support such a measure. The survey showed 42% of Irish respondents said they had either a good or very good understanding of their country's taxation system – the seventh highest rate and above the EU average of 35%. It also revealed that Irish citizens are more likely than any of their European counterparts to have bought tobacco abroad in the previous 12 months, at 21%, while 15% also said they had bought alcohol online from a retailer in another country over the same period, which was the second highest rate after the Netherlands at 16%. Overall, almost four out of 10 respondents across the EU supported lower taxes even if it meant a reduction in public services. Among those in favour of higher taxes, almost half said they would first increase taxes on tobacco and alcohol. The report concluded: 'By assessing and understanding EU public opinion on this topic, the European Commission is better able to shape its taxation policy around the needs and priorities of EU citizens.'
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Taoiseach urges Trump to tread carefully on pharma tariffs
US President Donald Trump needs to consider how Ireland has added value to US pharmaceutical companies operating here in any decision he might take to increase tariffs on European Union produced pharma products, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said. Mr Martin said he had noted comments by President Trump that he was looking at increasing tariffs on pharma imports from Europe to between 150 per cent and 250 per cent despite agreeing a deal with the EU last month to impose 15 per cent tariffs. The US president last week signed an executive order that will implement as of Thursday a 15 per cent tariff rate on most EU products after reaching agreement with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen when the two leaders met in Scotland at the end of July. But Mr Trump again threatened on Tuesday to announce separate tariffs on semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports 'within the next week or so' and made particular mention of Ireland in doing so during an interview with CNBC. READ MORE 'We'll be putting a initially small tariff on pharmaceuticals, but in one year – one and a half years, maximum – it's going to go to 150 per cent and then it's going to go to 250 per cent because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country,' he said. 'They [pharmaceutical companies] make a fortune with pharmaceuticals, and they make in China and Ireland and everything else. This is a, you know, this is a separate class than the 15 per cent tariffs on sort of everything. These are excluded classes,' he said. Speaking in Caherdaniel, Co Kerry at a State commemoration to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Daniel O'Connell, Mr Martin said it was important to recognise that US pharmaceuticals had benefited from having manufacturing plants in Ireland. 'The United States has gained increasing share of the European pharmaceutical market, and indeed of many Asian markets because of their presence in those markets. These US companies are globally strong companies because of their presence in Europe. 'And Ireland, being one of the countries that they're present in Europe, has added value and strength to those companies. And I would say to the president, he has to factor that into the equation because those companies will be damaged if such [punitive tariff] policies were to bear fruit.' Mr Martin said that he was in regular contact with both European Commission president, Ursula van der Leyen and European commissioner for trade, Maros Sefcovic regarding any changes to the 15 per cent tariff deal agreed with the Trump administration, including carve outs for Ireland's whiskey sector among others.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Trump to meet Putin in coming days, Kremlin says
A meeting in the coming days between Russian president Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump has been agreed on, the Kremlin said. Mr Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said the two sides are working on setting it up, and that a venue for the meeting has been agreed on and will be announced later. It comes as a new Gallup poll found that Ukrainians are increasingly eager for a settlement that ends the fight against Russia's invasion. Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow. Photograph: Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/AP A meeting between the two presidents would be their first since Mr Trump returned to office this year. READ MORE It would be a significant milestone in the more than three-year-old war, though there is no promise such a meeting would lead to the end of the fighting, since Russia and Ukraine remain far apart on their demands. [ 'Russia no longer has any constraints in this regard': Kremlin issues missile warning to West Opens in new window ] The enthusiasm for a negotiated deal is a sharp reversal from 2022 – the year the war began – when Gallup found that about three-quarters of Ukrainians wanted to keep fighting until victory. Now only about one-quarter hold that view, with support for continuing the war declining steadily across all regions and demographic groups. The findings were based on samples of 1,000 or more respondents aged 15 and older living in Ukraine. Some territories under entrenched Russian control, representing about 10 per cent of the population, were excluded from surveys conducted after 2022 due to lack of access. Since the start of the full-scale war, Russia's relentless pounding of urban areas behind the front line has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations. On the 1,000-km (620-mile) front line snaking from north-east to south-east Ukraine, where tens of thousands of troops on both sides have died, Russia's bigger army is slowly capturing more land. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has offered to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin. Photograph: Jaimi Joy/PA The poll came out on the eve of Mr Trump's Friday deadline for Russia to stop the killing or face heavy economic sanctions. In the new Gallup survey, conducted in early July, about seven in 10 Ukrainians say their country should seek to negotiate a settlement as soon as possible. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky last month renewed his offer to meet with Mr Putin, but his overture was rebuffed as Russia sticks to its demands, and the sides remain far apart. Most Ukrainians do not expect a lasting peace anytime soon, the poll found. Only about one-quarter say it is 'very' or 'somewhat' likely that active fighting will end within the next 12 months, while about seven in 10 think it is 'somewhat' or 'very' unlikely that active fighting will be over in the next year. Ukrainian views of the American government have cratered over the past few years, while positive views of Germany's leadership have risen, according to Gallup. Three years ago, about two-thirds of Ukrainians approved of US leadership. A residential building that was ruined by a Russian missile in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph Efrem Lukatsky/AP That has since fallen to 16 per cent in the latest poll, reflecting new tensions between the two countries since Mr Trump took office in January. But although the dip from last year was substantial – approval of US leadership was 40% in 2024 – positive views of US leadership were already dropping before Mr Trump took office, perhaps related to the antipathy that prominent Republican politicians showed towards billions of dollars in US support for Ukraine. Germany has grown more popular among Ukrainians over the past few years, rising to 63 per cent approval in the new poll. Ukrainians are much less optimistic that their country will be accepted into Nato or the European Union in the next decade than they were just a few years ago. In the new poll, about one-third of Ukrainians expect that Ukraine will be accepted into Nato within the next 10 years, while about one-quarter think it will take at least 10 years, and one-third believe it will never happen. That is down from 2022, when about two-thirds of Ukrainians thought acceptance into Nato would happen in the coming decade and only about one in 10 thought it would never happen. Hope for acceptance into the EU is higher but has also fallen. About half, 52 per cent, of Ukrainians now expect to be part of the EU within the next decade, down from 73 per cent in 2022.
