Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the script the Minister's officials wrote for him and it is in line with the briefing note they gave him when he was re-elected and took office. However, it is completely out of step with the political position of his party to get rid of the USC. What the Minister said is accurate. The abolition of the USC to the scale the Minister is talking about would leave us vulnerable to external shocks. That is the point I made this morning in the Dáil Chamber. It would narrow the tax base and, as the Minister just said, leave us vulnerable to other tax receipts falling off, as history has shown us. How could a proposal which limits the abolition of the USC to €78 million, in the context of the billions of euro it brings in, leave us more vulnerable or exposed or reduce the tax base any more than what the Government proposes?

I expected that the Government would not accept our amendment. I am glad the Minister has put his position on the record, particularly as he has flip-flopped from what he said this morning. I can only suspect it is what his Department officials have advised him to do. These are not departmental decisions but political decisions, and this is the problem. It has been politically led without any real basis except that somebody thought it was a good idea in the run up to the election. It is not a good idea; it is a bad idea. The election is over and we need to figure out what is the most sustainable thing to do for the economy. The proposal is about ensuring the lowest income earners are taken out of the USC tax net, which would increase their spending power. They need that pressure to be relieved. It is a small amount of money in the overall context. The Minister has talked about this year's measure being affordable. Based on the fiscal space and the Minister's split of spending and tax - not that I agree with it - €78 million of tax reductions is affordable next year and this report could potentially tee it up.