Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputies Tom Fleming and Joe Higgins.

The failure to achieve a write-down to the cost of the bank bailout is a huge millstone around the neck of every citizen and it is one of the reasons we are facing a budget of this nature next year and the year after. The notion that is the final tough budget and that if people straighten their backs, they will come out of the recession in the next year or two is not true. This gives false hope to people about the future.

Interest payments on State debt are equal to the amount being borrowed in 2014. The interest payments for 2014 are €8.2 billion against Government borrowing of €8.16 billion. Interest payments will increase over the next few years. Interest payments in 2014 equate to the total spend on education and 50% of health spending. The portion of the national debt, which is the result of the bank bailout forced on the State by the ECB to protect German, French and British banks and the EU banking system, is odious and it should be repudiated. The refusal by the Government to contemplate an increase in taxes on wealth, high incomes and corporate profits means the costs of the crisis since 2008 have been unfairly loaded on those who can least afford it. A total of €30 billion in austerity measures through cuts in social and capital spending and tax hikes, levies and charges that adversely affect the poor and those on low and moderate incomes have destroyed domestic demand and activity in the economy.

I question a number of the contributions made by Government Members about the policies to get people back to work through tax credits and to help small businesses. There is a major question mark over these incentives because if people do not have money to spend, jobs cannot be created. The Exchequer returns showed that VAT receipts for August were almost 28%, or €65 million, below the Government's target for the month. VAT is considered one of the big four revenue streams and it was €2.45 million or 3.5% behind target for the first eight months of the year. If people are not spending, VAT returns drop. While this needs to be examined more closely over a longer period, it seems to indicate people are not spending. Until they do, the economy will not turn around. If the Government continues to take money out of people's pockets, that will be the outcome.

A regime of tax reliefs that overwhelmingly benefits the wealthy, big business and those on high incomes has been maintained and it is estimated to cost the Exchequer €8 billion, which equals the debt interest bill the State must pay annually. The Government has deliberately followed a policy in its three budgets of protecting the elite at the expense of the majority. The single parent tax change provided for in the legislation is indicative of this approach. The Government will not touch the wealthy, corporate tax, anyone earning more than €100,000 or the assets of the wealthy which have increased in recent years. The value of the assets of the 300 wealthiest people in the State increased by €3.6 billion in 2012. Their assets are worth €66.6 billion. This includes helicopters, art and so on.

While the Government will not touch these assets, it saw an opportunity to cut the income of single parents. I was contacted by one man about this who said, "The first point is relatively straightforward and it relates to the repeatedly stated fact that the programme for Government cannot and does not provide for an increase in income tax. I have pointed out to the Minister that any removal of any portion of a tax credit and/or extended tax band will de facto amount to an increase in income tax payable, therefore breaching directly the programme for Government". That is a good point. This is a roundabout way of taxing the income of ordinary people who can ill afford it and who are trying their best to put their children through school, to rear them the best way they can and to support their families. This is a blunt instrument with which to go after people. It is shameful and the Minister should reverse this cut. He should take this measure out of the Bill and give back people a little dignity to rear their children.

See this speech in context