Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am aware that over the four-year period and for the reasons set out by the Minister present, the tax liability of the people who availed of the PUP is probably not huge, as he has described it but I still think it is unfair. Frankly, it is meanspirited because the Minister has not taken into account that the people who were on PUP are the people largely who have economically suffered the most as a result of the pandemic. They are people who would otherwise have been earning. They are people who may have got into arrears in their rent or mortgages, or accumulated debts because they lost work. The Minister has stressed, in fact three times, that this was a very significant income support. Yes, but it was still an income drop for huge numbers. He said some people got more than they would have previously. For the very significant number of people who got it, this was a drop in their income and they were the people who were particularly hit by the pandemic. Think about taxi drivers, arts workers and bar workers. These are people who, even now, are suffering more than those who can work from home, who have not been significantly impacted and whose financial situation has not changed.

Let us look at the stuff that came out from the Central Bank at the weekend about the fact that household net wealth has increased during the last period so some people are doing quite well in the pandemic because their income has remained the same and they have been able to save but there is a very significant group of people who, to a greater or lesser extent, have lost out significantly because of the pandemic. To just load this on top even though it is relatively small in the great scheme of things, and I accept that there is not going to be a water charge-style revolt over it, but is it not just a bit meanspirited for the people who have been impacted most, and will continue to be impacted most as long as the pandemic is with us?

The Minister has said that this issue does not come under the same category as the exceptional needs payment even though it is under that category. One could not get a more strong example of exceptional than the current pandemic and the way it has impacted on very particular cohorts of people, and their ability to work at all or to earn an income. Frankly, it is meanspirited to do this. The Minister has been unable to give the figure here but I doubt if the revenue generated is a huge amount of money in the great scheme of things that have happened. Why be meanspirited when we are supposed to be all in this together? The people in here have not had their incomes impacted one jot but the people who have had to avail of the pandemic unemployment payment must now face a small additional tax liability even though they have been impacted. On that basis, the Minister should reconsider, in the spirit of "we are all in it together" and recognising that there are particular cohorts of people who have suffered dispropionately through this.

Why add any additional financial liability to their situation?