Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

I am going to be consistent in what I say.

We are considering all matters with regard to taxation at present and I am going to be consistent in the answer that I gave the Deputy in his earlier questions in saying we have made no decisions. I am sceptical regarding the claim that has been made that refundable tax credits can have the kind of effect that it is claimed with regard to the lower income families because of the low level of income tax they pay in the first place because we have such a progressive tax code. I believe there are other ways in which we can help those.

Regarding the point made about inequality, I would also say that the Gini coefficient, which I know the Deputy will be familiar with as one of the measures we have of inequality across the world, Ireland has one of the lowest such levels within the European Union. While I cannot speak about the Social Justice Ireland analysis, many of the other recent analyses made of recent budgets did not include improvement of services and did not, for example, include the effect of things like free school meals and changes we made there which I know would have a larger effect on those who have less. That is the whole idea of making that change in the first place.