Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I have often stated, I do not accept the amendment being proposed by the Rural Independent Group or when it was proposed by the Fine Gael Party.

Amendment No. 2 calls on the Minister, as we have to do to allow these amendments to be in order, to prepare and lay before the Dáil a report on increasing the exemption limit for the USC from €13,000 to €30,000 and the distributional impact of such an increase. It is our view that one of the fairest ways to reduce the burden of taxes on hard-pressed families and workers is to deal with the exemption limits. As I discussed earlier, the USC has the benefit of having a distributional impact across the board. It benefits those on very high incomes in the same way as it does those on average incomes. It has that benefit. Dealing with the standard rate band throws up challenges and difficulties in that regard. We should be looking at the exemption limit to be increased over a period of years from €13,000 to €30,000. The benefit of that is that nearly half of all earners would then be exempt from the USC. All earners would benefit from the first €30,000 of wages being exempt from the USC. This is an important proposal. I want to put it on the record in case the Deputy is of the view that the previous proposals that were introduced by the Minister where he said that somebody earning over €70,000 does not benefit at all, is not the case. Those people will continue to benefit from this. It is just that the benefits do not increase beyond that point. Obviously, it would be the same with our proposal. Regardless of income, a person would benefit from the first €30,000 being exempt.