Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

The statement by the Minister for Finance to the effect that the Government has taken care "to ensure that the measures are equitable and highly progressive" is incorrect. Based on an initial analysis of the figures, today's budget will create a larger demographic sector of the working poor. When the income levies and health levy are factored in as well as the fact that most people working in the private sector have had to endure pay cuts across the board, the real income they will be left with will be so marginal that it will not enable them to have an adequate standard of living. We all appreciate that measures had to be taken. However, they should have been taken on the basis that they would not be regressive. There is now a large demographic cohort of ordinary working families who will be devastated financially by the proposals within this document.

With regard to income tax, we were always told that the canons of taxation dictated it should be progressive. I do not see anything in the budget that ensures high net worth individuals will pay a proportionate amount of their incomes towards getting us out of the mess we are in. I do not see why the Minister for Finance could not have introduced a higher tax rate at this time so as to cushion the blow against middle and low income earners. It is completely regressive and when people wake up to the fact of what this document contains, it will make them even more angry at the Government than they already are. That is why I will not support this resolution.

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