Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Public services are very poor in this country. I listen to families with children who are waiting assessment of need or are on hospital waiting lists. Our pubic services are totally underfunded. If we do not have decent taxation in the country, we will not be able to fund those. Many people would be quite happy to pay a little bit extra in tax if they knew they would get the public services they deserve, and that has been found in other countries as well. In Australia, for example, they did research on whether people would be willing to pay a percentage or two extra in tax in order to put in place proper services for disabled people, for example, and people said they were. What you have to pay for privately that is not available in the public sector will more than pay for itself if you have to increase taxes by a few percent.