Mr. Ian Talbot:

I wish to make a few points. In the first instance, we are not supporters of austerity. Rather, we are supporters of a balanced budget. At the start of this process, we were faced with the prospect of being obliged to borrow €2 billion per month. At present, just €1 billion needs to be borrowed each month to pay the bills. Nobody can survive on that. A household could not survive on it and the State cannot survive it. As a result, we are supporters of a balanced budget. We did it before in the 1980s and we have to do it again.

On the 12.5% rate of corporation tax, I very much agree with the points made. We have invited companies to our shores and they have generated significant employment and brought with them many benefits. For example, we will be hosting our corporate social responsibility awards ceremony tomorrow evening. These awards allow companies to show off what they do in the social and corporate responsibility space. Much of that has been driven by some of the companies which have engaged in foreign direct investment into this country. A big point that is always missed is that these companies and their employees pay huge amounts of PAYE and PRSI. The companies also pay rates and other taxes, including water charges, etc., into local economies. They pay a lot of bills as well. It is not all about corporation tax. In fact, I think members will probably find that the amount paid in payroll tax is much bigger than that which relates to corporation tax.

In the context of the reforms we are seeking in the area of social welfare, I am sure Deputy Higgins agrees that we cannot have a social welfare system that acts as a disincentive to work. That is the issue upon which we have commented. The package of rates relating to social welfare payments are acting as a disincentive to work. We have to find a solution to that. There are many other areas to be addressed in this regard. For example, there are consistent overruns in the HSE. The latter keeps obtaining funding and this is partly done by way of levies and increasing the cost of private health insurance such as that offered by the VHI, Aviva, GloHealth, etc., and these go back into employment costs as well. The more we drive up employment costs, the fewer people will be employed.

Deputy Higgins made the point that if we reduce social welfare, people will have less money to spend in our members' businesses. If taxation is increased, the same thing will happen.