Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

For industrial, commercial and domestic consumers this model has been a disaster. Members of Fianna Fáil in government know this and do not deny it. Is a carbon tax one of the proposed new taxes?

I made a request to the Taoiseach that all papers and information from the Commission on Taxation should be published now. The Commission on Taxation was my proposal. I argued for this over a long period of time and I was pleased that many other people in all parties took up the idea. In the context of my proposal the Commission on Taxation was intended to identify with some clarity who pays tax, the rate of tax they pay and the tax breaks that have become an amazing feature of our tax system. These allow very wealthy people to pay no tax and allow the phenomenon of tax exiles, who leave the country at one minute to midnight, live in Ireland and yet pay no tax. The purpose of the Commission on Taxation is somewhat similar to the Law Reform Commission, to set out the facts so that political parties and whoever is in government can reach a conclusion in the broad public interest in terms of fairness and incentivising areas such as employment, business and job creation. The challenge for the Government is to open up the papers of the Commission on Taxation. The Government suggests that this might wait until June or September. The country cannot wait that long. If people talk about a bipartisan approach to taxation, this must be in the context of reliable information. I have the tax figures from two years ago and three years ago. The February tax returns, released today, are roughly the same as the February tax returns for 2004. Having figures from last year or the year before is not of great relevance because many of the categories have collapsed. If the Government wants to act in a bipartisan way, so that all parties contribute their views on what can be done, we need the information.

Throughout the banking crisis, I was astonished that the Department of Finance was behind the curve in respect of international banking and the consequences for banking in Ireland. I was astonished that the Department of Finance and the regulator were hopeless in respect of what was taking place in our banks. AIB acknowledged yesterday that six developers owe more than €500 million each to the bank. Some 15 developers each owe more than €500 million to Anglo Irish Bank. The capacity of the Department of Finance and consequently the Minister for Finance to have a grasp of what is going on is astonishing. I heard from the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis that we are blaming the bankers and clearly they deserve a large portion of blame. People are completely disappointed that the regulator failed totally or else had a complete misunderstanding of what the role entailed. If we are to move forward we need solid, reliable information. It is not possible to make policy otherwise. The principle of the policy must be that those who are wealthy and have availed of extraordinary tax breaks during the Celtic tiger years now have an obligation to give something back. One cannot ask a clerical officer in the Civil Service, who must pay a contribution of 6% net of tax in respect of a pension levy, to pay more at the end of this month unless we first establish the principle that the tax adjustments begin with the very wealthy in our society. As a country we must retain some fundamental notions of fairness. Otherwise, it is not possible.

I was amused when I heard the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, talking about bankers and Cromwell at the Fianna Fáil Ard

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