Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Obviously a conscious policy decision was taken this year not to do that. Politics, of course, is always about choices and resource allocation. That is the meat and drink of politics as it should be. This year, clearly choices were made to cut VAT, for example, on apartment development and hospitality. Frankly, given the constraints we are operating under, that choice was made at the expense of a degree of indexation for working people who will, in some cases at the very least, experience tax increases next year and may not experience net increases in their take-home pay. We can argue that back and forward. The point that has been argued already this morning so I do not want to belabour it. This is absolutely about choice. I am more persuaded than ever about the efficacy of doing this based, for example, on the Commission on Taxation and Welfare report of a couple of years ago, which clearly laid out the option available to us in raising revenue form alternative sources and not having as much of a focus on raising taxes on income. Income tax is a very significant and important tax head. We should pride ourselves on the fact that we have a progressive tax system in this country. That should remain the case. By addressing issues around indexation and introducing that as a feature of our system, that then forces us to make other choices. I do not think that is a bad thing, given that we are not good in this country, in international comparators at least, on raising revenue in terms of non-productive assets and wealth. They are the choices made. I accept that. These are political choices.