Sinn Féin bill on children being groomed by drug gangs.

Sinn Féin introduced a bill that will help protect children from being groomed by adults involved in the drugs trade and provides proper sanction for those who exploit children for this purpose.

Sinn Féin launches Manifesto

Today we launched our manifesto to deliver a fair recovery for ordinary people – putting money back into our public services is an essential part of our plan. Michael Noonan previously said that the USC was a ‘permanent feature’ of the tax system. Now he’s saying he wants to abolish it. FG/LAB will say anything to get back into power.

To get rid of the USC in its entirety would be unfair and reckless. The move benefits the better off a lot more than someone on an average wage and will mean that some high earners will be more than €10,000 better off while someone who earns €18,000 a year will be about €100 a year better off. It also involves taking the equivalent of the entire health and education budgets out of the tax system over five years.

Sinn Féin wants a fair and sustainable recovery. In government we will introduce a fair tax system. In government we would

• We will abolish the Local Property Tax, saving 1.8 million homeowners an average of €244 per year.

• We will scrap water charges, saving a family of two adults €260 per year.

• We will remove 277,000 workers from the USC.

• We will ease the tax burden on the self-employed, moving towards the equalisation of the Self-Employed Tax Credit with the PAYE Tax Credit.