Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Towards the end of his presentation, Dr. Kelly said that the lesson of the years preceding 2008 was the vulnerability created by additional spending linked to growth in property-related tax revenues that turned out to be transitory. He is mindful of the excess income involving corporation tax and welcomes the proposal to bring about a long-term savings plan he expanded on during some of the questions. Again, this is timely but it is a challenge, as Dr. Kelly rightly said, to support households in the face of the cost of living and taxation so that we can have a modest package that ensures that any wage increases do not equal tax increases. That has been a long-standing commitment of the Government and will continue. We acknowledge and appreciate Dr. Kelly's contribution and his recommendations and guidance to this committee in its effort to be an adequate budget oversight committee for all parties. We will suspend the meeting while we await our other witnesses.