Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Okay. I appreciate that. For clarification, we have had these debates in the past and the Minister disagrees with, as he says, my thinking on this. For transparency, the following are not my words, but the words of the Minister's party leader, Simon Harris, when he said with regard to not adjusting income tax: "That's the equivalent, we just need to be honest, of saying there will be tax rises". The Minister disagrees with that statement. He obviously thought it was my statement. It is actually that of his party leader. It is the Tánaiste's statement. Is that not a fact? I understand the Minister is not going to be in a position to say that today because the Tánaiste said it at a time when he promised the public there would be tax reductions but that was before the election. After the election, the Minister has come forward with a Finance Bill - it is not a case of him having to increase the budget package, as he could have made other choices in relation to taxation, but we will come to them later on - where he has allowed developers and landlords to pay very little and, in some cases, no taxes. He has allowed very wealthy people - we will see the statistics on people who earn over €3 million - to get a tax reduction of over €100,000 in this Finance Bill. These are all choices the Minister has decided to make. I wanted to make that very clear. What the Minister is talking about here is not a contrary position to mine. It is a contrary position to that of his party leader, the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, before the election. I wanted to clarify that.