Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

From my observation, the Minister and Deputy Boyle are big boys. The Minister does not really get the point. I am sure he is as familiar as anybody else with people's life cycles. If a couple with children are both at work, they benefit from tax reductions of €6,000. Saying, in the abstract, that the tax wedge in Ireland is very narrow and so on is correct. Work started on this when the Labour Party was in government with Fianna Fáil and has been ongoing for approximately ten years. Doing this is not easy but the Minister is refusing to recognise that it is seven years since the former Minister, Charlie McCreevy, did this and the economy has changed, as have social patterns.

A considerable number of young couples must live long commuting distances from their places of work in order to buy affordable housing. The Tánaiste used to talk about the teacher married to the nurse and how it was critical that they should be able to afford a house. In west Dublin an affordable three bedroom apartment — not a house — from the Government's affordable homes agency is marketed as being affordable at €320,000 to €340,000, nearly nine times the average industrial wage. Using OECD figures, that is an extraordinary multiple of earnings. Young couples must pay an awful lot for housing or move great distances from locations of work and mass transport in order to find cheaper housing. They must then pay up to €200 per week per child for child care. The Minister is making family life impossible.

Let me be very clear. Men want to have it all. Why should women not want the same? They want to be able to do things which reflect their life choices and commitments, particularly in caring for families. There is nothing politically wrong with this. It is right politically and for our society in the long term. That is the part of the argument the Minister must recognise. This is not only about producing happy women workers for IBEC, it is also about producing people who will have opportunities to work and care for their families.

See this speech in context