Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin will support the Bill. We have long been advocates of more open and transparent government. We brought forward legislation to bring that about but, unfortunately, the Government parties voted it down. We firmly believe the people have a right to know how the decisions that affect their lives are reached. We also believe they have a right to know how their money is spent, not only their income tax but all taxes. It is a weakness in the Bill that it does not deal with the indirect taxes that people pay daily, although it does contains references to VAT and excise duties. Of course, we would like to go much further than the Bill. We also believe in participatory government and giving people a greater say in how decisions are made.

Because of our commitment to open and transparent government, we have no difficulty in supporting the three principal proposals contained in Deputy Murphy’s Tax Transparency Bill. The Bill proposes a facility whereby people could access a statement detailing the proportion of their income on various elements of Government expenditure. There is clearly no reason people who want this information should not have it. I would stop short of Deputy Murphy‘s proposal that a copy of this information be sent out unsolicited to every taxpayer in the State. This would place an unnecessary cost on the Exchequer. However, an online calculator facility which was easily accessible to the public would be a cost-effective way of making this information available. Likewise, there is no reason to oppose Deputy Murphy’s proposal for a VAT calculator on appropriate Government websites. Some people will be interested in accessing such information and should be facilitated in doing so.

From Sinn Féin’s point of view the most interesting provision is the requirement to publish the detail of all purchasing orders over the value of €5,000. This is a very sensible suggestion and should be implemented immediately. When the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform started to publish details of purchase orders over the value of €20,000, Sinn Féin welcomed the step, while arguing that it should do so for spends of lower amounts. This is reflected in Deputy Murphy’s proposal of €5,000. This level would be much better and should be applied to all Government bodies.

While Sinn Féin has no problem in supporting the measures contained in the Bill and we will support them on Second Stage and on Committee Stage, with reservations about sending out information unsolicited, I do not believe that any of these proposals actually require legislation, nor do I believe they are of such significance that they warrant the convening of the national Parliament to discuss them or agree them today. These are the kinds of things any Government committed to openness and transparency should be doing as a matter of course.

The income tax statement and VAT calculator could be up and running within a matter of hours and not within a matter of months. Any departmental IT staff or even, as Deputy Murphy mentioned, some of the CoderDojo kids could produce this work within a couple of hours. The information as to what percentage of Government spending goes on education, health, prisons and so on is available and the process is very simple. One inputs the information into an online calculator. They exist online throughout the world and one simply takes one that is already there and places it on a website. It could be done within a matter of hours. Someone sitting at home could have it done by the time this debate has concluded. Likewise the publishing of the purchase orders could be implemented by a simple letter from the Minister for Finance to all Departments. This is not complicated cutting-edge transparency. It is pretty basic stuff and should be routine.

Sinn Féin supports the Bill and supports open government, but I was also genuinely surprised that Deputy Murphy chose this issue as the subject of his first piece of legislation. I do not know much about the concerns of the people in his constituency, but at home in Donegal people are living with much heavier burdens. Every day, my office is contacted by people struggling to get by, to pay basic household bills and mortgages and, in some instances, even to feed their children.

If Deputy Murphy does not believe me, he should talk to the volunteer staff in any local branch of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. Calls for assistance to the society have increased by over 80% since 2009, with 60% of calls coming from households with children. The society made 400,000 visits to families struggling to make ends meet last year alone. Since 2008, relative and consistent poverty, child poverty, income inequality, mortgage distress and crippling levels of debt have increased.

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