Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

It is because of the way he strings them together. This is a flat tax. I am sure the Taoiseach knows that. Flat taxes are unfair. Less than 7% of the households liable for the tax have paid it. The Government has one month to bring some sense to this.

These are people who cannot pay. It is not as if they have the money and have two houses. They cannot pay. I asked the Taoiseach to accept that this was a mistake and to find some other way of raising this money. I made a suggestion to him, but of course he ignored the suggestion. Many people are asking how the Government can increase the pay of special advisers, or pay €17,000 in attendance money to so-called super-junior Ministers to attend Cabinet meetings, when it should be a privilege to serve in the Cabinet.

Is the Taoiseach seriously suggesting that at the end of this process, tens of thousands of citizens will be hauled before the courts over a charge which they cannot pay, while not one banker has so far faced due process? I ask the Taoiseach to accept that this was a mistake and to change it.

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