Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. In the budget documentation the Government is cleverly presenting the example of a person on a minimum wage, as if the minimum wage increase is being paid for by the Government. It is not; it is being paid for by employers. On this occasion, the way to help a person in the €20,000 to €30,000 bracket could have been to increase tax credits. Those people are still paying a significant amount of tax, albeit a fraction of what somebody on €70,000 or €80,000 is paying. It is a question of taking account of what has happened in the last three or four years. The burden has fallen very heavily on people on low incomes and those at the lower end of the middle income bracket. We have a different point of view and it is one that has been thrashed out this year and last year. It is probably a much broader point than the contents of the Bill.