Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The Taoiseach promised in advance of the budget to protect the most vulnerable in Irish society, but any read of it will tell one that he has not done that. He has not lived up to that claim and that promise. An income levy of 1% is being introduced. I would not argue with the introduction of a 2% levy on incomes over €100,000, but the 1% levy applies across the board irrespective of whether one earns €10,000 or €90,000. I wonder has any calculation been carried out in terms of the cost of administration of imposing such a levy on those on the lowest incomes who are not in the tax net at present and should not be. I fail to understand the thinking behind it. Why was a threshold not introduced? It could be commensurate with those at least within the tax brackets. Those on the lowest level of income, who are, indeed, within the tax net, should also have been excluded.

This measure is very regressive and punitive. It is discouraging of people even though it may, in low income terms, apply in small terms. This is my question. Why did the Minister introduce it in this way? Did he give any serious consideration to it because I warrant, in the lowest income levels, that this will cost more to implement than it will reap. It will have another dilatory and destabilising effect on already hard-pressed people in the lowest income areas.

As we are dealing with a group of resolutions, on the second financial resolution, where mortgage interest relief for non-first-time buyers is to be decreased from 20% to 15%, many of these families are suffering under the raft of measures in terms of cutbacks and increases that the Government has built into this budget. They are dependent on their home. They are mortgage payers and that is a further punitive hit that they will face in terms of a 25% reduction in their entitlement to mortgage interest relief. We cannot accept that glibly without comment. It is a very punitive measure and I do not believe that it was justifiable.

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