Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

The value of this amendment is obvious in assessing whether this budget will help or hinder our progress towards economic recovery. There are a number of very controversial proposals in this Bill, most obviously, the increase in VAT. Some Members and many people in the wider public believe this will be very damaging to consumer demand and the ability of many SMEs to survive. There must be an assessment of whether that arises.

Similarly, there is outrage at the fact that the Government is planning to give tax breaks to corporate high fliers while everyone else is being hammered by austerity measures, cuts and new charges. Given the controversial nature of such proposals, the least the Government could do is assess whether new jobs will be created or we lose tax revenue as well as annoy huge numbers of people suffering under the impact of austerity. There are several measures in the budget that, at the least, require analysis further down the line to see whether they are beneficial or damaging to this country's prospects of economic recovery. On that basis, I support the amendment.

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