The new four-year plan unveiled yesterday will impose a heavier burden on one-income married couples than on single people.

This is direct attack on stay-at-home mothers and appears to be a sop to the IMF, the European Commission and the OECD all of which want women to enter the workforce and children to be placed in day-care.

They see no role in society for couples who believe children are best served by one parent staying at home to care for them, or indeed for an elderly relative.

Page 102 [link] of the plan reveals that by 2014 net pay for a single person on €55,000 will be reduced by €1,860 per annum, while for a married one-income family on €55,000 it will be reduced by €2,310 per annum.

In other words, one-income married couples on €55,000 pa will pay an additional €450 in tax compared with a single person on the same income.

This is very much part and parcel of the tax individualisation philosophy which favours double-income married couples over one-income married couples, but it actually goes further.

The reason it goes further is that a single person is very unlikely to have dependent children whereas a married couple, whether one or two-income will most likely have dependent children.

Therefore, the Government is saying that a single person with no dependents should pay less tax than a one-income married couple with a dependent spouse and dependent children. This is scarcely believable.

Earlier this week it was revealed [link] that a new IMF report wants Ireland to introduce a new tax-break of five percent for mothers who re-enter the workforce. Stay-at-home mothers have no place in its vision of society and it sees no value in looking after young children at home.

This dovetails perfectly with the philosophy in this regard of both the European Commission and the OECD.

The new four-year plan appears to be doing their bidding and so the attack on stay-at-home married women has intensified further.