Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am glad I asked about this amendment because what is coming out is revealing. This debate needs to come out into the open. I hear frequently that we must be careful because of the markets. We have been listening to that endlessly for God knows how long, and it has not got us very far. That logic seems to be operating at every level of policy, and the economic thinking is that we must be careful because the markets might get annoyed. It says a great deal about the reason there is a veil of secrecy and no transparency around much of these tax exemptions, allowances and so on because what is behind it is the fear of Government, and the fear of the political establishment generally, that we must not annoy the markets. I am not happy with that as an approach to policy.