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

I will comment first on the point about not looking back. The comparison Deputy Doherty makes is right. Let us consider Seamus Coffey's proposal relating to 80% or 100% tax relief on intangible assets. He said the companies should not have got 100% tax relief. He was referring to those big multinationals which benefited greatly from the reduction of 100% rather than 80%. The Minister refused to apply Seamus Coffey's proposal. If I remember correctly, it would have brought in €800 million in additional tax. That would have been a small drop in the ocean compared with the profits these companies are making. Essentially, the Minister refused to do what Seamus Coffey was proposing on the basis that it would be unfair and create uncertainty and so on.

However, in this instance, the Minister believes it is fair to do this to people who have already been significantly and adversely hit as a result of the pandemic. The Minister did not really address this point. That is my central contention for why the Minister should not do what he is proposing to do. The vast majority of people who got the pandemic unemployment payment have lost out as a result of the pandemic. Even with the PUP, they have lost out. Otherwise, they would have been working and most of them would have been earning more.

They would not have built up debts and so on to do with rent, mortgage arrears or other charges that will have accumulated while their income has been significantly reduced in many, and probably most, cases. Is it, therefore, not unfair and mean-spirited when huge swathes of the population and significant swathes of big businesses and so on have not been impacted at all and, in some cases, have done well? We will get onto our proposal for a Covid-19 solidarity tax shortly. It has been discussed actively across Europe for those who have actually done well out of the pandemic. In that context, is it not just mean-spirited, unfair and miserable to do this to the people who have been hit adversely and have lost out? The Minister proposes they will lose out a bit more, perhaps a significant amount more in some cases, according to Deputy Doherty's figures. Even if it is small, however, it is unfair because others have not lost out at all or have even done reasonably okay or very well during the pandemic. That is the unfairness and that is how it will be seen. I do not really see how the Minister can justify it in that context.