Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

This was in the Minister's budget speech. A paper was published yesterday setting out not a universal social contribution structure but a universal social charge. I have several questions for the Taoiseach in this regard. Does the Government, in the context of the briefings that are being made available to the Opposition parties, propose to request that the Department of Finance outline in detail the Government's thinking on the universal social charge? Does it, for instance, protect the notion of a universal contributory old age pension and contributory widower's and widow's pensions? Does the Government propose to publish a White Paper in regard to this fundamental change in Irish legislation?

The Taoiseach spoke earlier about consensus.

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