Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Our efforts to broaden the tax base do not get the profile they merit. We revalued local property tax. It is the second time it has been revalued. Many jurisdictions struggle with one revaluation and we have done two.

We have broadened the number of homes that are paying it. The price brackets for evaluating LPT are now a bit more appropriate and realistic for the property market. Every year we do carbon tax moves. We are about to move into a period of gradually increasing PRSI to better fund pension savings in the future. I believe we have a very credible story regarding tax base broadening. Tax base broadening does not have to be done in a big bang by bringing in big new taxes in a single year. Instead, this and the previous Government budget by budget have made gradual changes. Carbon taxation is a difficult topic at the moment due to where we are with energy prices. In a few years that will bring considerable tax revenue. That is a good example of broadening the tax base.