Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This hopefully will be third time lucky for me and I will get to the end without suspensions.

I also find it incredible we will continue to pay €1.5 billion per annum in allowances to certain public servants. This is uncalled for and needs our immediate attention.

Some imaginative and innovative measures could be implemented in the forthcoming budget that would raise considerable revenue for the State without having a deflationary effect or causing anyone to go hungry or cold. For example, a one cent levy on short message services, SMS texts, would generate €120 million for the Exchequer per annum. If it were increased to two cent, it would raise €240 million. Recently, the Spanish Government imposed a tax on lottery winnings. Last year, I suggested lottery and gambling winnings of over €500,000 should be taxed which, in turn, could generate considerable revenue for the State. No one winning such an amount would be worried about such a tax. However, the revenue could alleviate the concerns of the person losing a home help or personal assistant.

These are the simple measures we need to examine and which could have a real impact on people’s lives. There are many other ideas on revenue generation which is why I am looking forward to next week’s debate on the budget which will take ideas from across the House. There is much low-hanging fruit to be picked. I hope the Government and the Minister for Finance will take such measures on board. We need to get our priorities right. It is time to do that quickly which is what the people are asking of us. I hope it will be achieved in the forthcoming budget.

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