Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I would love it if the officials from the Financial Regulator and the Central Bank who did not do their jobs were sacked. Fianna Fáil will never sack anybody. I do not know why. Although I would not like to name anybody outside the Dáil, I probably know why certain people are paid massive money for jobs they cannot do.

The Government's next scandalous attack will not take place until the new year. It will be the meanest of the mean. I do not understand why the income levy is not confined to people earning more than €70,000. People earning less than €100,000 will be subject to a levy, or double taxation, of 1%. Those earning more than €100,000 will have to pay 2%. The Government should have attacked the super-rich. Young people often take jobs in supermarkets to pay for their education or help their families. They will have to pay the 1% levy, even though they might earn as little as €3,000 a year. It is the greatest scandal of all time. Middle class people, who are already under pressure to pay for health care, education, child care and mortgages, will face major difficulties as a result of this decision.

The Dáil will meet in January or February, when people are starting to realise that money is coming out of their pay packets. The levy will affect their ability to meet their fuel costs and pay their mortgages — in other words, to keep their families going. Meanwhile, the taxpayers will have to keep the banks afloat, whose chief executives earn more than €1 million per annum.

My constituency colleague, Deputy O'Mahony, mentioned a scandal affecting my part of the country which I planned to raise this evening. What does Fianna Fáil and its Government partners have against the west of Ireland? Why do they always keep us down? Why are we always blackguarded? I refer on this occasion to the scheme the Government has drawn up to charge people to leave this country from our airports. If one travels from Dublin Airport to Glasgow, London or Edinburgh, one will have to pay €2. If one travels to the same locations from Knock Airport, one will have to pay €12. What kind of thinking is that? Where are the Fianna Fáil backbenchers from County Mayo? What will Deputies Calleary and Flynn do about this scheme? Will they allow the Government to put Knock Airport at a disadvantage once more? Why is the Government doing this? Many people had to emigrate from this country in years gone by. Now that the ship is sinking once more, thanks to Fianna Fáil, those who are emigrating will have to pay the Government €12 to leave the country.

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