Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I move amendment No. 1:

In page 8, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “Report on Universal Social Charge

3. The Minister shall, within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on removing the Universal Social Charge from the first €40,000 a person earns.”.

This relates to the USC again and reflects the commitment we in Sinn Féin made in relation to the general election, which was less than a year ago. I am surprised the Minister has stood over a package from just a year ago that he has literally thrown out the window. I have looked at his commitments. It was interesting and very helpful that Deputy Timmins mentioned merging the USC with PRSI. That was not just something the Minister examined. It was another commitment that was given by Fine Gael in the election. It was in its manifesto. It followed from a commitment in a previous election campaign where Fine Gael promised to abolish the USC as well. There is a trend here. The abolition of the USC, a commitment in an election, was gone and was dumped after the election. Merging USC with PRSI, a commitment in the Fine Gael manifesto, was dumped after the election. The commitment it made in the last election was that it would increase bands by €2,000 per year every year and not, as Deputy Timmins says, within five years. Fine Gael was explicit. It was every year. That is nowhere to be seen either. This is by choice. The Minister has made choices and he will defend those choices and defend hundreds of millions of euro going to developers. I cannot see that anywhere in Fine Gael's manifesto, and that is the sneakiness for which the public have low regard. It is that broken promise and it breaks down trust in relation to political representatives. I know the Minister is hanging on to the idea that he did not want to do a package beyond that, but there were options within that, and this is one of the options we are putting forward. We have other amendments, and there are amendments from others here, as to how additional revenue could be raised to pay for the likes of a personal taxation proposal, or others may have other proposals in terms of increased expenditure. It is not the case, however, that if you do something it just increases the package. It can be offset by other measures or deciding not to go ahead with a tax cut, for example, for developers or for landlords or maybe looking at higher taxes in relation to banks, which are making super profits.

This proposal is about the abolition of the USC on the first €40,000 that individuals earn. It is something Fine Gael once campaigned on. The Minister stood for photo shoots with a policy that went way beyond this. It was to abolish it not just on the first €40,000 but for everybody. This would benefit people in the here and now as we are dealing with the cost-of-living crisis. It would benefit people to the tune of nearly €750. In my view, it is a part of a package of supports that is required, particularly now, given the cost-of-living crisis we have.