As noted in the last blog-post, the Government’s four-year plan unveiled this week represents yet another attack on that most despised of all breeds, the stay-at-home married woman.

Having already attacked the one-income married family through tax individualisation, the four-year plan will now erode the remaining tax differential between one-income married families and single people.

The four-year plan compares a single person on €55,000 per annum and a married, one-income family on the same amount and shows that by 2014, the single person’s net pay will fall by €1,860 annually, but the one-income married couple will see their net income fall by a further €450 or €2,310.

The current net pay of two-income and one-income married couples, plus single people all on €55,000 gross per annum is as follows:

Two-income married couple; €42,424.16

One-income married couple; €40,408.16

Single person; €38.518.16

As you can see, two-income married couples pay the least amount of tax, and a single person pays the most tax. The single person pays €1,890 in tax more than a one-income married couple who are somewhere in between.

The view of the Government is clearly that a couple with a stay-at-home parent (usually a wife) and almost certainly dependent children should pay only €36 per week in tax less than a single person also on a gross salary of €55,000.

Apart from Child Benefit – which is not marriage-specific in any case – the Government makes no other concession to the one-income married couple.

In addition, the generous tax concession to two-income married couples is not really a concession to marriage because it is no way, shape of form acts as an incentive to marry. Rather it acts as an incentive to both spouses to enter paid employment.

By the time the four-year plan is implemented, the differential between the single person and the one-income married couple on €55,000 will have narrowed by a further €450 per annum, reducing the difference to €27 per week.

It is clear that the Government is moving toward full individualisation of the tax system, meaning tax payers will be seen only as individuals and all will be treated as though they have no dependents and as though the decision to marry is a private choice only, of no particular consequence or benefit to society.

The stay-at-home married women on the other hand is being viewed as an actual liability to society, a woman who should really be in the workplace, and who will be forced into the workplace to the extent that the State has the power to make this happen.