Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Boyd Barrett has made many points. I will try to address at least some of them. First, Deputy Boyd Barrett suggested that there are people who are doing rather well, are getting well-paid, can pay their way and need no tax relief. That is true, but that was not the way it was in 2011 when we came to power. At the time, many middle-income people could not pay their way. They could not do all those things. It is as a result of Government policy that they can now pay their bills. Society is complicated. It is part of the social compact and the work of the trade union movement to establish the proper wage for a particular job.

My opening position at the start of this debate was that I do not believe one can run a society if everyone gets paid the same regardless of what they do, how long they work or what responsibility they take. I do not believe there is a flat-rate model. Therefore, once we allow for differentiation, we will have differentiation.

Deputy Boyd Barrett has excoriated middle class people on the basis that they do not need any relief. However, middle class people have to pay mortgages and the costs of raising their children out of after-tax income. They are part of what is called the squeezed middle. They find it hard enough to live when they have to pay mortgages and pay for the education of their children. They pay for everything, in fact. There is no model of society where one size fits all.

I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett in one sense. One of the aspects of statecraft, if that is what we call what we do, is to seek to achieve a balance to continue with a degree of social cohesion in the country. The Opposition Deputies are strong advocates of soak-the-rich policies. Yet when the Government put a tax on property, they were all shouting and roaring over how it was unfair. They wanted to exempt people who had €2 million pads, €3 million pads and €10 million pads. Deputy Boyd Barrett and his colleagues are unique. They are the only socialists I know of in the world who are against property taxes. I simply do not get it. Of course, I do get it. They could not resist the temptation to have a punt at a populist issue regardless of ideology.

Let us compare who pays what in society.