Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This Dáil and Government have acted with more urgency than we sometimes get credit for, particularly when it comes to tax policy. It is to the credit of Deputy Boyd Barrett and Deputy Lahart and his party that they have been willing to support measures like that. In the period that led up to the crash decisions that narrowed the tax base were never reversed when times were good. We have done that in the past two budgets. We made a big change in VAT, which was contested by many. That has the potential to bring in between €500 million and €650 million extra per year. It is a big tax change. We made a decision on stamp duty on commercial property. That is exactly the kind of change that never happened before yet we were able to assemble a majority in the Dáil to do that. Many other smaller scale measures have happened but those are big tax changes that a minority Government was able to make happen with support in the Dáil.

Carbon tax could be another one. Deputy Boyd Barrett quoted evidence from British Columbia. The evidence from the ESRI shows that a high level of carbon tax can reduce emissions. I hope the parties of the left will not again oppose using tax policy as a way of affecting behaviour and raising revenue to invest in environmental measures, although I have a feeling they will. If that is where we end up it will be another thing that makes the Irish left and far left very special in the European setting. We can build a consensus for doing that.

The Deputy talked about radicalism and our expenditure. Capital expenditure for this year is increasing by 24%, which is a €1.4 billion increase. It is making a big difference to projects all over the country, for example Grangegorman in my part of the city, O'Devaney Gardens, and Dominick Street. That is just a small part of our city.