Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are conversations about whether we should reduce the USC or widen the tax bands. If we increase the tax bands, those earning less than €33,000 will get nothing back. If we reduce the USC from 5% to 4.5%, it will impact on 1.3 million citizens who are working, though it is not big money. What are the witnesses' views on this? I know they do not agree wholeheartedly with reducing taxes but we have choices to make. Do they think the USC is the best thing to address, rather than tax bands?

My final questions is on the sugar tax. Companies have become very smart by using alternatives to sugar to sweeten their drinks. A tax that may have been able to take in €100 million in revenue would now only take €40 million. There is also a cross-Border problem. What can we do to close off any loophole in that respect, to avoid implementing a tax and then being obliged to spend two or three years fixing the problem? As with the rent pressure zones, there are loopholes and people are getting around them. Landlords cannot increase rent by more than 4% so they are kicking tenants out to sell the house or revamp it for a family member to move into. They then do not do that and just get new tenants. Where we can see loopholes happening in advance, should we not close them off?