Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

This approach to Government spending has meant that the Government has not been able to index allowances and bands over the years since the general election and this has hurt ordinary families. An ordinary married couple with one earner has lost, through the failure to index tax bands and credits, €1,300 since 2002. How much of that is restored today? It is €20 per week, less than €1,000 per annum. Even more cruelly the Minister for Finance has tightened the screw again on those families, giving them a tax band on a par with a single person with no dependants. That is not fair.

See this speech in context