Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

For all of the reasons given, I cannot accept any of the amendments tabled by the Deputies.

I will now deal with some of the other issues raised by colleagues. Deputy Pearse Doherty referred to the Commission on Taxation. My understanding is that when the commission examined this issue, it invited significant comment from interested parties or groups. It also consulted widely among a large number of interested parties in the private and public sectors in order to progress its deliberations. It is fair to state the proposal brought forward in the recent budget is more nuanced than the more blatant one made by the commission in 2009. We have been cognisant of some of the points made by Deputies in that regard.

The Deputy made a very fair point on including a commencement order. As I suspect he knows, we calculated the budgetary arithmetic on the basis that €22 million - not an insignificant amount of money, particularly in the light of the circumstances in which the country finds itself - could be saved by means of this measure. The effect of including a commencement order would be that we would not be able to obtain that €22 million in this tax year and that the full weight of the proposal would not be enforced until the end of next year. As a result, the €22 million would be lost. I am sure the Deputy will inform me where we might find this amount and we would certainly examine whatever suggestion he wished to make.

On married and cohabiting couples, when I was dropping my children to school recently, I met the father of some of their friends who informed me that he was working in London to where he travelled each Monday morning. As a result, he must pay for bed and breakfast accommodation there for five days each week and he is also obliged to make mortgage repayments on his home in the area of west Dublin in which we live. It is not untypical for married parents to find themselves in situations of this nature. They are obliged to hold down two jobs in separate locations in this country or else in different countries. It is not credible to suggest such married couples should be disadvantaged by a continuation of the current scheme. We must be cognisant of this fact.

Deputy Róisín Shortall inquired as to whether we were breaching a commitment contained in the programme for Government in respect of this matter. I do not believe we are doing so and wish to explain why. The programme for Government states that, as part of its fiscal strategy, this Administration will "Maintain the current rates of income tax together with bands and credits. We will not increase the top marginal rates of taxes on income".

The credit is being maintained. It is not being lost but restructured to reflect the purpose for which it was originally intended.

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