Budget 2021: Poverty, climate and coronavirus should take centre stage

On Tuesday 13 October, the Irish government will unveil Budget 2021. We have released our pre-budget submission in the hope of ensuring that this year’s budget provides support to those who need it most, is climate centric, and addresses the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While we are all familiar with the enormous challenges faced by Ireland due to the pandemic, the situation in low-income countries is much more dire. A fundamental part of ensuring that low-income countries can prevent the spread of the disease is by supporting infrastructure. This can be done by the government through corporate tax reform, official development assistance and a debt moratorium.

As it is impossible to form solutions to global poverty and inequality while corporate tax avoidance drains $100 billion in resources annually from low-income countries, Ireland needs to further reform its corporate tax avoidance and double taxation treaties. This can be done by contributing to a second generation of international tax reforms and by supporting a transformative international reform of corporate tax leading to an equitable rebalance of taxing rights between developed and developing countries.

In terms of official development assistance (ODA) during the COVID-19 crisis, it is paramount that the funding of aid is not cut. Instead, aid to combat the pandemic should be additional – not supplemented from the current aid budget. Furthermore, Ireland needs to publish a roadmap for meeting its 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) commitment on ODA with detailed year-on-year increases and continue to uphold the country’s reputation for delivering highly effective aid.

Finally, in order to ensure that low-income countries have the tools to combat COVID-19, Ireland should support an immediate, unconditional moratorium on debt interest payments for poorer countries. In Africa alone, this act would free up $44 billion this year to finance public health and fight the virus.

While is it fundamental that we support, in global terms, the furthest behind first, that must also be the case here in Ireland. Care work is the “hidden engine” that runs our economy and is predominately done by women and girls who often sacrifice autonomy, community engagement and personal income. Care work in Ireland and around the world is highly gendered and undervalued, with many in the care sector earning poverty wages. Ireland should ensure proper State-funded wages and supports for care workers, hold a referendum on Article 41.2 of the Constitution to include gender neutral language, and prioritise gender budgeting which enables the allocation of funds in a way that promotes gender equality.

Finally, COVID-19 is not the only threat to our world right now. As the virus rages on, the devastating impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere and are having real consequences on people’s lives. In some of the world’s poorest countries, lives and livelihoods are under threat due to changes in temperatures, rainfall and intensity of natural disasters. The insecurity cause by climate change perpetuates and deepens poverty. To combat this deepening crisis, richer countries likes Ireland need to reduce carbon emissions and provide sufficient climate financing to ensure that the nations most impacted by climate breakdown have the resources to implement adaptation and mitigation measures. In many cases, the countries most impacted by climate change are the least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.

Against the backdrop of this virus, Budget 2021 provides the Government with an opportunity to build on the above commitments and improve the lives of people living in, or vulnerable to, poverty and crisis.