Public to be asked who they want to foot the bill for state services

The results, which will inform the Commission’s recommendations to Government next July, will shape the public finances for the next two decades, starting with Budget 2023 next year.

“The nation is emerging from the Covid crisis, facing burgeoning challenges, and has been shaped by some three decades of economic upheaval and transformation,” said Professor Niamh Moloney, chair of the Commission.

“Government has given us the opportunity to influence our shared future and help position our tax and welfare systems to meet future challenges and to build on opportunities arising.”

The request for public input comes as the EU is debating whether to relax its infamously strict Stability and Growth Pact to allow governments to borrow more to fund services and infrastructure.

Two key areas to be addressed by the consultation are long-term demographic pressures on both tax and spending, as well as the implications of international reform on corporation taxes.

Ireland’s aging population and growing imbalance between old and young will put increasing strain on the costly healthcare and pensions systems in the coming years.

Recent changes to the global taxation of large companies, in which Ireland was forced to give up its 12.5pc corporation tax rate, have also presented a challenge to Ireland’s economic model.

Since the financial crisis, large corporate tax windfalls from a handful of major multinationals such as Apple, Google and Facebook have helped pay for increasing fiscal commitments.

Supportive policies from the European Central Bank have also made it possible for the State to borrow its way through the Covid crisis at effectively no cost.

However, the Ireland Fiscal Advisory Council, the State budget watchdog, has repeatedly warned the government is living on borrowed time by ignoring downside risks to fiscal sustainability.

The commission, which began work in June and will be providing high-level strategic advice to the Government, is looking at new ways to raise sustainable revenue to fund State commitments in that evolving context.

The independent body, made up of 14 expert appointees and chaired by Prof Moloney of the London School of Economics, is expected to issue a report to the minister in July 2022.

The consultation, called Your Vision, Our Future, runs until January 7, 2022, and will be followed by a major public engagement modelled on the National Economic Dialogue.

This is only the fourth time in the history of the State that a Commission on Taxation and Welfare has been convened.

The most recent commission in 2009 was responsible for making recommendations to institute local property taxes, carbon taxes and water charges – which are all highly contentious revenue-raising measures.