Basic Income Ireland is pleased to welcome this paper authored by our members Dave Quinn and John Baker as an important contribution to the debate on how to bring about a Universal and Unconditional Basic Income in Ireland.
Double-page version for printing.
This paper outlines a specific, actionable proposal for introducing a basic income in Ireland today, and models out the impact across the exchequer and different tax groups.
The key message is that ‘It’s a great idea, and we can afford this now.’
Some key highlights of the paper are that, noting caveats due to data constraints, under this model:
- All in society are provided with a basic income equivalent to jobseeker’s allowance.
- This model significantly reduces barriers and increases incentives to take up paid work.
- A large majority of income earners will be better off, those earning up to about €55,000pa .
- Those on low pay (€20,000pa) will benefit by 20%, up to 65% for the very low paid (€10,000pa).
- The well off will pay slightly more, 1.4% for those on €100,000 and 2.5% for those on €300,000.
- This can be implemented now with a few institutional changes.
