Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We will include that in our budget submission, which I hope to send to the Minister and his colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, tomorrow. I will respond briefly to the Minister's answers to the three questions I raised. On the indexation of social welfare and tax rates, I would argue that the failure to index the tax rates, in particular, would effectively be a tax increase. Therefore, I think that should be the first priority if changes are being made on the income tax side. I would make the same argument regarding the indexation of social welfare. This is a time when the recovery should be for everyone. I presume we have not indexed anything since the crisis took hold in 2009 or 2010. At a time of increased revenues, seven or eight years on, it is absolutely appropriate for social welfare and tax credits to be index-linked in recognition of the need for the recovery to benefit everyone.

While I absolutely accept the Minister's point about the slight discriminatory mechanisms that could exist if our approach to child care were to be based purely on tax credit changes, I would like to repeat my central question. When the Minister is considering what to do on the child care issue, will he seek to ensure that nothing which might lead to further discrimination - or any potential discrimination - between different types of parenting will be introduced? In other words, the State should not take a specific position, even if it might possibly be beneficial for the economy to say we want everyone to work. Is it not appropriate for the State to say that the manner in which children are raised is an issue for parents to decide on? The State should not discriminate in favour of one system by treating it as a better system. Surely that should be decided by parents, rather than by the State through its tax or other support measures.

As I have said, I will include the in Green Party's submission its proposals for tax changes. The Minister is right when he says that the expenditure side can have the most influence on climate policy. I would argue that this is an issue for every Department and every section of the Government. The State needs to make a strategic decision on whether it wants to go in a sustainable direction. At present, it is not going in that direction. We need something of the scale of what was done by Whitaker and Lemass in previous generations to place our country on a sustainable path. We are going in the exact opposite direction at the moment. Just as Whitaker led the change which gave rise to Ireland becoming an open economy, we need the Department of Finance and other Departments to make changes now to put this country on a sustainable path. That is the way the world is going but we are going in the opposite direction, which is not clever in financial or environmental terms.