Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister here today. The Minister has already indicated that he is not inclined to change income tax credits or allowances for people paying income tax, which is the whole PAYE sector and others who pay income tax. Speaking at this committee last week the chairman of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council indicated that this is worth some €600 million. At a time when workers' incomes are rising by about 3% per annum it would actually generate a plus to the State of some €600 million. Today I heard the Taoiseach suggest that it may now be identified as some €700 million. On budget day this is going to be the key area within which the Minister will have to play around. I appreciate the very difficult constraints of Brexit; we all do.

I want to find out, however, if the Minister is seriously thinking of no social welfare increases at all. There are two points to be made in this regard. The Minister must bear in mind that people who are carers, are pensioners or who have a serious disability - especially those who are over the age of 55 - have no capacity to go out to get extra work to earn extra income, and therefore they are particularly vulnerable. While not disclosing the details of his budget, perhaps the Minister would share with us his thinking on this very important group of people. I am aware it is very difficult. I recall as a Minister inheriting a requirement for €440 million of cuts in the deal done by our predecessors in Government. I got that figure down to some €200 million. I cannot understand that the Minister and the Taoiseach could actually be contemplating no increases in social protection.

I understand the Minister has been cautious in his use of language, but I believe many of the PAYE workers who are contributing the €700 million to the Exchequer are glad to see that it goes towards something important. The demographics show that there has been an increase in the number of pensioners, as well as in the number of carers, which is linked with the rising age of the population. In a way, this is a great boon to the State, but I cannot understand how it will be dealt with, especially in the context of Brexit and the recent developments in oil prices.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, and other commentators on the economy and the European Union are concerned about the skills shortages in the building industry. I have raised this issue with the Minister and the Taoiseach. I stress to the Minister that areas with significant pockets of high unemployment are being left behind as the rest of the economy tightens with almost full employment. The performance is very poor in taking on trainees and apprentices. Will the Minister put a rocket under whoever runs SOLAS? Ireland will need to import people, for whom we do not have homes, to build houses as happened during the last boom. That is what then helped the economy to crash. Everyone here is prepared to work with the Minister on this issue if we can get that to happen.

My third question-----