Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

However, we reversed the situation concerning the minimum wage by changing the universal social charge threshold from €4,004 to €10,036. This brought 330,000 people out of the universal social charge. In the case of carers and others who are vulnerable, individual circumstances vary from family to family. I come across many individual and personal cases.

The fact of the matter is that we must deal with this issue ourselves because nobody will deal with it for us. From that perspective, starting at the top, the situation was changed in respect of residency and citizenship for those who are exceptionally wealthy, with increased charges and payments to be made through capital gains tax, capital acquisitions tax, DIRT and so on. All of these things, right down the line, impact in one way or another on everybody.

As I stated, the choices are never easy and all of them are unpalatable. We warned about this and in so far as the protection of the vulnerable and those who are under pressure is concerned, be it from mortgage distress or the ravages of unemployment, one tries to balance it out in as fair a way as possible. Any individual circumstance, such as the one the Deputy raised in respect of a family of four, needs to be looked at from an individual perspective and what can be done to help this family in their difficulty. Obviously, until we get to a point where our finances are under control and we can focus on jobs, growth and getting people off the live register and back into the world of work, people will never be fully satisfied. They cannot be fully satisfied in circumstances in which one has to make changes that impact on people's lives in this way.

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