Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I will be very brief. If somebody was paying €60,000 a year — that is not unusual in this city — he or she would expect to get approximately €24,000 back if he or she were taxed at the marginal rate of tax. On the basis of the Government's intent, that would be reduced to €12,000. That is a massive imposition on a vulnerable section of society. The Minister for Defence, Deputy O'Dea, assured me in RTE today — modulated by Miriam O'Callaghan — that this was never the Government's intention and that it would not apply. When I met the Minister for Finance in the corridor this afternoon he assured me there was no intention to do that either. My problem is that when I checked the summary of budget measures I noted on page B.6 under health expenses relief, "Health expenses relief will be granted at the standard rate only from 1 January 2009, with the exception of nursing home expenses which will be standard rated from 1 January 2010." If it was not the Government's intention to do that, how did it get into the summary of the budget? Now that I have it in print in front of me, that what I say will apply from 1 January 2010, can I still accept in good faith — as I did — the commitments of the Minister for Defence, Deputy O'Dea, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan? I hope the Tánaiste can give that assurance to the House tonight. Can she explain to me how this got into the summary of the budget if the Government never made the decision?

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