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

Deputy Doherty refers to my priorities. My priorities are typified and articulated by the fact that we brought in a pandemic unemployment payment in emergency circumstances to support those who need it the most, and that we brought in a wage subsidy scheme to protect the very people that Deputy Doherty has referred to, at a time of crisis. Deputy Doherty and Sinn Féin will not lose any opportunity to look to create the narrative of me protecting or supporting one group of people ahead of another. It is because of the duty the Government had, and because of the need that was there at that time to protect those who were most vulnerable, that we brought in the pandemic unemployment payment. It is an income support. The Deputy is right that I cannot have it both ways. I cannot say that this is an income support, which it is, and then not tax it in the way we tax other income supports. That is consistency. To suggest that the actions here are motivated by anything other than the need to recognise that if this is an income support, which it is, then it needs to be taxed in the way other income supports are, is not fair, not true and it does not reflect the fact that the very reason such a broad range of exceptional measures were brought in was to protect those who were vulnerable. The measures worked. They played a very important role across that period and in many cases they are still available.