Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:
In page 9, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following:

“2. The Minister shall, within one month of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on options available for removing the USC liability for all workers earning less than €17,543 a year from the USC net.”

Obviously there are changes in the USC in this year's Finance Bill, but the Minister will be aware that it is Sinn Féin's long-standing policy that those earning less than the minimum wage, €17,543 per annum, would be taken out of the USC tax net. We recognise that the Government has moved in this direction on two occasions, but it has not done so entirely.
This amendment asks us to prepare and lay before the Dáil a report on options available for removing USC liability from all workers earning less than that figure per year. The Minister will understand why the amendment is phrased the way it is because he has had the same difficulties himself when he was an Opposition spokesperson on finance. The way we deal with the Finance Bill in 2014 is wholly inadequate, when Members of the elected Dáil cannot propose amendments to a Finance Bill, but must jump through hoops to try and lay reports and so on, instead of being able to present something, debate it and vote on it if so desired. Later on there will be a string of amendments that I have proposed on very simple things that I thought did not place a charge on the State, which have been ruled out of order. I am explaining the origins and the reason the amendment is about a report.
We would like to see this enacted in this year's Finance Bill. That is not possible coming from the Opposition, but I ask the Minister to consider this. I know he moved in this direction two years ago and again this year at the mark of around €12,000. We need to go further and take out those earning the minimum wage, but I take this opportunity to press him to accept in the spirit of true political reform the legislation Sinn Féin has proposed, that there would be a constitutional amendment that would deal with the constitutional provisions that prohibit Members of the Opposition bringing forward amendments to legislation that would place a charge on the public.