Mr. Tom Geraghty:

I was going to expand on the answer Mr. Sweeney gave to Deputy McDonald's question about universal benefits. As he said, on the face it, it may appear attractive to cut the universal benefits in the circumstances but there is another issue related to the much broader problem. We have a serious difficulty with the income tax system, in that a disproportionate amount is paid by those in the PAYE sector, therefore, cutting universal benefits and means testing them will disproportionately affect those in the PAYE sector because they cannot hide their income, whereas the self-employed are in a position to do so. I do not have the exact figure off the top of my head but I think in excess of 80% of all income tax is paid for by those in the PAYE sector. Nobody would seriously suggest that anything like that proportion of total income in the country is earned by those in that sector. Clearly, they are overpaying and everybody else is underpaying.