Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have to stand on top of the system. There are two ways of working in the Department. Civil servants will work within the silo and I understand that because that is their job, but the Ministers sitting around the table with 15 people have to work above the silo to knock all these walls down. All of us - the witness has had good experience of this - are trying to get the system to knock the walls down. That creates all sorts of crazy situations in trying to come at a rational system.

The simple fact is that I do accept that what Mr. Duggan is doing for low-income workers who are paying 20% or 0% tax is a better situation than it is at present. Of course, it is, because it is 33% versus nothing. However, this does not address the fundamental anomaly of the whole system, which is totally unfair. Unless Revenue comes down to the same level as Mr. Duggan, it will still be unfair in the totality. How am I to explain to my constituents that the less well-off they are, not only will they get less relief because they put less into their pot, but they will also get less relief whichever way from the State if they go with the Government scheme versus the private scheme? They will rightly say to me, "Éamon that's unfair". We have a historic chance of making it much fairer. What I will be proposing, of course, is that when we come to our report we highlight this in big, bold letters. It does involve Revenue and it involves the whole system.