Last week’s Budget confirmed that income tax is increasing from 20% to 22% in April.

Treasury Minister Alex Allinson said the additional income will be ‘ring-fenced’ for the island’s healthcare services.

We asked members of the public whether, in theory, they were happy with taxes going up if it improves the island’s health and medical offering.

The majority of the people we spoke to agreed that the NHS does need extra funding, but don’t trust the current government to ensure this extra tax specifically goes to the island’s vital healthcare services.

David Gibson, from Port Erin, doesn’t think the Manx government will stick to the ring-fencing of this extra money.

He said: ‘I don’t think they’ll stick to it because like most governments, they will tell you one thing and do another.

‘My experience of government is they’re all back-stabbing each other to try and win votes so they get paid.

‘To ring-fence this money they’ve got to state to the public how much money is ring-fenced at the beginning of the year and then at the end of the year show how much of that money was used for the purpose it was intended to and how much was deviated to other sources.

‘Come clean and let the public know if you’re a good politician or one that tells porky-pies!

‘I’ve been in hospital recently for first time in donkeys years, and the NHS does a wonderful job. They need more money to get better facilities and treat people a lot quicker than they’re doing at the moment.

‘If we’ve got healthy people, hopefully we’ve got happier people.’

John Allan said the rise in income tax isn’t a problem if it’s for the NHS.

He said: ‘If it’s just for the NHS, a 2% increase seems reasonable.

‘My wife works in the NHS and it’s a tough job.

‘I can definitely understand [the frustration from the public] because of everything else. There’s so many other things.

‘I’ve mainly just looked at the stuff relevant to me, so tax and national insurance, but we’re fairly comfortable, I’m sure this will affect a lot of other people.’

Vanessa Jadestar, from Port St Mary, doesn’t think the government is considering the public with the rise in taxes.

She said: ‘They don’t think about the actual people who work hard and sometimes can’t afford to pay their bills.

‘The cost of living since Covid has become unreasonable, unmanageable and it doesn’t matter if you’re single, or whether you’ve got a family, food costs more and living costs more.

‘Do we need to eat? Yes. Do we need to stay alive? Yes. But sometimes, financially, we can’t!

‘The national health service does a brilliant job and the people who work for it definitely need a pay increase.

‘I think the government should have special funding to support our hospital.’

Mother and daughter Chrissy and Claudia Shaw said as long as the money is going to healthcare settings it makes sense to rise income tax.

Claudia said: ‘In principal if the money is going to good causes like the NHS and people within charitable causes then I think it’s fair enough.

‘If it’s being used for other things however it’s a totally different matter.’