Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

In terms of the statistics in the budget, I want to ask the Taoiseach about the universal social charge. It is very telling that his Government has chosen to use the term "charge" and not "contribution". When the welfare state was built, the term that was always used was "contribution" because a contribution implied that if one contributed to one's country and one's State during one's working life, one's child or children would be assisted with their education. When people became older, society would also assist but instead of a contribution we now have a charge. In terms of the rates on the charge, the new charge will start at 2% for people earning from nought and €10,000, 4% for people earning from €10,000 to €16,000 and 7% for people earning over €16,000. For many people on the lowest levels of income that is a fairly hefty additional level of charge. It is significant.

The tables in the budget dealing with who pays tax are interesting. The numbers of people who are paying the standard rate of tax is increasing by 53,000. An additional 53,000 will be paying the standard rate of tax and 91,000 people will be paying the higher rate of tax. A total of 144,000 people will be in the tax net.

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