Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To cut through some of the - what is the parliamentary word for this? - bluff and bluster from the Minister, this is the Finance Bill. I would not bring forward amendments relating to expenditure or how we deal with expenditure. I have to hand a copy of the list of amendments to the Finance Bill that I have tabled and I can read them out. Every one of them is tax related. Will the Minister accept that point or does he want to keep on with his spin? They relate to the foreign earnings deduction, the local property tax, the renter's tax credit, tax reliefs and subsidies for pensions, refundable tax credits, tax treatment of international investors, banks and tax, capital gains tax, section 481 relief, tax on home heating oil, tax on petrol and diesel, zero rate on VAT on safety products and school uniforms, stamp duty, again local property tax and the defective concrete products levy. That is what my amendments to the Bill relate to.

The Minister again makes his accusations and hopes they will land somewhere, and he says he would not criticise the finance minister of Germany or wherever. The Brits crashed their economy because the Minister's party’s sister party, which shares the same party at the European Union, the European People’s Party, EPP, tried to introduce tax cuts for the wealthy. Our policy is about certainty over the winter months, a very specific period, and only in respect of one form of energy. That is what Germany and other countries in Europe have done.

I think approximately eight or nine of them have brought in a form of certainty on the caps. However, it suits the Minister's narrative of scaremongering with regard to the big, bad wolf of Sinn Féin. Many people out there say Sinn Féin could not be much worse than what they have. I know we would be far better. The Minister said last night that it was about who cares the most. That is not what it is about. It is about ideology. That is why, as we had in the debate last night, the Minister does not believe we should tax institutional investors who pay no rents. It is why the Minister argues the banking levy was cut last year by €70 million and, yet, he will argue later on that we should put up the price of housing at a time when housing is at a sky-high level.

The amendment is about trying to help people over the winter months especially with regard to home heating oil. It is about trying to make sure they can stay warm and safe during those winter months. If Germany, France, Denmark, Austria and many other countries throughout Europe can introduce it, we should be able to do the same and, indeed, what they have done is far more expansive than what we are arguing for. We are arguing for it up until the end of February.