Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I support fully the thrust of the amendment. Like everybody else, I cannot wait for the report of the Commission on Taxation. I hope all the associated documentation will be published at the earliest possible opportunity.

A number of the measures in this budget have already made people significantly poorer. Deputy Barrett just referred to one, namely, mortgage interest relief. People took out huge mortgages because builders and developers were ripping them off with their grossly overpriced properties. At the same time, the banks were shovelling out money to them often out of line with proper lending conditions. The result is that many of these families now find themselves before the High Court with the prospect of losing their homes. We know the figures are increasing daily.

The abolition of mortgage interest relief will have a very negative impact on people who are already struggling. To make matters worse, the value of those people's properties has fallen substantially as a result of the bursting of the property bubble. I flagged the property bubble with the former Minister for Finance as far back as September-October 2006. I said that the bubble and the consumption were totally unsustainable and that we needed to concentrate on SMEs and try to generate a proper export base rather than the artificial income streams to Revenue then prevalent.

The announced abolition of the Christmas bonus to people on welfare, including pensioners, will hit them very hard. It is a very mean-spirited and unnecessary budgetary measure. There are other people with income who could better afford to take a hit than pensioners after whom the Minister should have gone. Will the Minister confirm that an announcement is pending, probably next week before the elections, that the Christmas bonus will not be abolished? If such an announcement is made, it will be recognised for what it is, namely, an election stunt or gimmick. I have no doubt that as soon as the elections are over the Government will revert to the position of withholding that bonus from the poorest in society.

The result of this budget has been to make people substantially poorer. It is interesting to contrast this with the discussion in recent days about the religious orders. The religious orders are being asked if they would not mind contributing something extra towards the compensation for the people they abused. It is substantially different from how pensioners are being treated with the Christmas bonus simply being taken away from them. It is quite telling in terms of the Government's outlook not only on fiscal matters, but on society generally.

I do not have major expectations about the report on the Commission on Taxation because the terms of reference are so narrow that it will find it difficult to come back with as comprehensive a report as many of us would have liked. That said, I do not want to be negative about the report. I await its publication and look forward to a discussion on it. I hope a consequence of its publication will be a significant overhaul of the taxation regime in this State because it is long overdue.

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