Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

That is good. However, many other categories will not be. I appeal to the Government to accept the list of exemptions regarding people on low incomes and social welfare to take them out of this position.

The context is that this is the fifth budget which has brought in severe austerity since the emergency budget which, if I recall correctly, was at Easter or perhaps in May 2008. There has been a succession of these budgets, all of which have taken money out of people's pockets and added extra VAT and increased charges in ways over which people have no control. In this case, the Government is asking people to put money into an envelope or to walk into a local authority office, for which they will be charged an extra €10 to pay the fee, as I understand it. There is a very large section of the population who will simply not do it, and another large section who cannot do it because the Government has skinned them and gone as far as it can go with them. The budget last week was the last straw. They have gone over the edge and simply will not pay this.

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