TASC is hosting our first TASC Encounter, featuring well-known journalist and writer Fintan O'Toole and Newstalk 106 “Down to Business” presenter, Mark Mortell on Wednesday, 24th February in the Royal Irish Academy on Dawson Street Dublin at 6:30pm. Admission is FREE. To book your place for this event please download our booking form HERE and e-mail it to contact@tascnet.ie. Please note that space is very limited so we will have to allocate seats on a first come first served basis ...
January 29th: TASC has a vacancy for a full time Office Administrator (9am to 5:30pm Mon to Fri) on the basis of a one year contract with the possibility of an extension. The successful candidate will have at least a year’s experience in a similar position and will have strong administrative, secretarial & organisational skills.
Applicants should have an excellent knowledge of MS Office programs. Experience of event management would be a distinct advantage. A detailed job description is available here ...
January 21st: "Ireland cannot rely on personal pensions to improve income adequacy for lower income groups". That was the conclusion reached by several speakers at today's launch of Personal Provision of Retirement Income: Meeting the Needs of Older People?, edited by Jim Stewart and Gerry Hughes, which was followed by a presentation of TASC's updated pension policy proposals ...
TASCNet is a new network of people interested in working with us to help transform Ireland. If you share our vision of a more equal and democratic society, and would like to make a positive contribution to realising that vision, then 'Get Involved' by joining the TASCNet programme ...
January 14th: Progressive-Economy@TASC 2009 Review is now available. Click here for the digital edition, and here to download a PDF. The debate continues in 2010 - go to www.progressive-economy.ie to read what they're saying today (and check the ticker at the top of this site for the latest headlines).
December 15th: In its Post-Budget Analysis issued today (see link here), the independent think-tank TASC noted that, in 2010, the savings made by cutting Social Welfare will be almost exactly the same as the spend on tax breaks for landlords (SW saving = €809 million in a full year, landlords tax breaks = €782 million in a full year) ...
December 3rd 2009: In its Pre-Budget Statement issued today, TASC estimated that tax breaks will cost an estimated €7.4 billion in 2009, and said that an overhaul of tax breaks could contribute significantly to the €4 billion cuts being sought by the Government in Budget 2010 ...
November 18th: Together with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, TASC today launched the Hierarchy of Earnings, Attributes and Privilege (H.E.A.P.) report, designed to present the facts about income inequality in Ireland in an accessible form. The report – which was authored by NUIG academics Professor Terrence McDonough and Jason Loughrey – comprises a poster illustrating the numbers of households at different income levels, broken down by occupational category and household type, together with an explanatory booklet ...
TASC is an independent think-tank dedicated to combating Ireland’s high level of economic inequality and ensuring that public policy has equality at its core.
Click here to read more.
Tired of reading the same commentators toeing the same economic line?
Read progressive-economy@TASC for an alternative take - and join the debate!
TASC provides research consultancy services in a range of policy areas, and is also happy to enter research partnerships with like-minded organisations.
For further information contact Paula Clancy, Director
TASC estimates that tax breaks will cost around €7.4 billion in 2009. Click here to read an overview, and here to read more about just one tax break - that for landlords, which will cost around the same in 2010 as the saving to the Exchequer from cutting Social Welfare rates.
TASC believes that, instead of a risky system of private pension provision dependent on equity markets and incentivised by tax reliefs, the existing Social Welfare pension – on which most people rely for their retirement income – should be increased and universalised. TASC also argues that a mandatory earnings-related social insurance-based second tier pension should be introduced.
Click here to find out more about TASC's pension policy.
Did you know that 50 per cent of higher earners would accept higher taxes in return for better public services? Or that 85 per cent of the Irish public believe the Government needs to take active steps to reduce the gap between high and low earners?
Click here to read the results of the 2008 survey, and here for the 2009 results.
Although written earlier this year, Professor Sean O Riain's thoughts on the role played by banks in economic development are particularly topical in the context of NAMA.
