Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

The Minister does not have an easy job but before she came into power I do not think she would have put her name to much of this stuff. She is a member of the Labour Party that would have objected to most of this before it achieved power. We are in a country that has one of the highest levels of inequality in the developed world, but this Bill does not tackle the inequalities that exist in our society. That is a serious mark against the Government. The Minister's primary objective in government should be to tackle such inequalities, which have grown and grown. They will grow further as a result of the last budget, which lacks fairness.

I know the situation is not an easy one and that there is not an unlimited supply of money, but there was another way of doing it. I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett's point that direct taxation in the form of income tax is a fairer method than indirect taxes. Ireland now has one of the highest indirect tax regimes in Europe.

I realise that the Labour Party is in a coalition Government and is involved with a very right-wing party. Sadly, however, the Labour Party has been brought along and I can see more Fine Gael measures than Labour ones. When I was elected I said I thought Labour should not go into coalition. If the party had stayed in opposition, I thought it would be the largest party in the country after the next election. It will not be now, however.

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