Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I mentioned that tax reliefs are a distortion of the income base, but I also said that there are circumstances in which they can be used for the common good. There is no doubt that this proposal would have a marginal effect on the rural economy. I would make the point that having roads on which people can drive would also have an effect on the rural economy. There are roads in north-west Meath that are completely impassable for at least six months of the year. People have to make diversions of six miles or more to drive their children to school or to get to church or the shops. I know people in rural parts of north-west Meath who do not invite their customers to the location of their business because they know that if their customers make the journey once they will not do so again. They offer instead to meet their customers in the town of Virginia, in south-west Cavan. The point I am making to the Minister is that there is a hierarchy of need. I suggest that the level of need and pressure is most severe among a swathe of citizens in this country. I refer not only to those affected by health difficulties and homelessness, but also to small businesspeople who are looking for roads to be tarmacked so that their businesses can function. I suggest that super-high earners are at the bottom of that hierarchy of need. They need no new tax breaks in order to be able to meet the needs of their lives. The income levels they already have mean they are able to meet all the human needs they experience multiple times over. If we are to use tax reliefs, we should not target them on the basis of the needs of extremely high earners. Some of the towns throughout the country that are dying on their feet because so few people are living in them have been mentioned. In many of those towns, Main Street is Shutter Street because so many shops have closed. We need to target the funds in that direction rather than putting them into the deep pockets of high earners.