Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

Over the past weeks and months we all have had to endure a significant campaign of spin by this Government concerning what it proposed to do in this budget. The main thrust of the spin was that we were all in this situation together and that everybody must pay, from top to bottom. The Government was at this from two months out when it began to brief all the political correspondents to the effect that 40% of people did not pay any tax and, on grounds of fairness, these people must be brought into the tax net. By and large, most of the political correspondents fell for the notion that there were 40% outside the tax net.

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