Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There has been a lot of discussion and kite flying by the Minister's colleagues about tax breaks that might be available in the future. Would the Minister agree that if money is available for tax breaks, it should be made available to those who are working and who do not benefit from the subventions referred to by the Minister, in the main? Tax breaks should be introduced in a targeted way to facilitate working parents of young children rather than just being introduced in a scattergun fashion. Will the Minister be making the case to her colleagues that tax breaks, when they are introduced, should be targeted particularly to facilitate working parents who need child care and who find that a huge proportion of their after-tax income is spent on funding the cost of going to work? This issue must be addressed, and if money is available for tax breaks in the future it must be spent in a targeted way rather than in the way that has been suggested, that is, giving a little to everybody with no policy basis.

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