Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

I take issue with some of what the Minister said when he quoted the OECD report. He will find that everyone on this side of the House does not agree with the conclusion that we should get rid of the home carer's credit, a recommendation made in the report.

The Minister spoke about net transfers in payments from the State taking income tax into account. The reality is that he has overseen not a change from income tax to capital tax but a change from income tax to spending taxes. As regards single income earner families, the effect of VAT negates whatever statistic the Minister quoted as much as anything else. The biggest amount we collect in tax is VAT.

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