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Matt Cooper: It’s not practical politics to make people pay over half their extra earnings in tax

The surpluses raise legitimate questions as to how long the goverment can maintain the ‘temporary’ USC when it is taking in more money in taxes than it needs to spend

Campaign slogan: Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the launch of Fine Gael’s General Election manifesto at Custom House Quay, Dublin in 2016

The government is finding it almost impossible to spend all the money it wants to spend. That’s not just on capital projects, as outlined in outstanding detail in this newspaper last weekend, but on current spending too. It can put budgets in place for all types of jobs but seems unable to fill them.

The crisis in filling nursing posts, and consultant positions, in our hospitals has been ongoing for years.

The teaching profession in ...