Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

This is the fourth regressive budget in a row introduced by the Government, which is deeply disappointing. It is a slap in the face to families who simply have had enough and who cannot make ends meet. As previous speakers said, according to Social Justice Ireland, the gap between rich and poor has widened by €499 a year. This measures the gap between the disposable income of a single unemployed person and a single person in work earning €50,000 a year. The gap is higher when higher salaries are taken into account. As a result of this and previous regressive budgets, those who took the greatest hits during the recession have been left behind again and priority has been given to reducing the top income tax rate, favouring the wealthy in our society.

The two groups particularly badly impacted by the budgets from 2008 to 2015 are families dependent on social welfare, who lost approximately 12.5% of their income, and working poor families, who lost approximately 11.5% of their income. This budget does nothing to reverse their situation. Indeed, it adds insult to injury.

The people of Ireland are facing huge challenges. Some 750,000 people in this country live in poverty. Some 20%, or 1 in 5 children, live in poverty. The deprivation rate is 26.9%. We have 150,000 people who are long-term unemployed, 90,000 families on local authority housing waiting lists and emigration rates of huge proportions. Up to end April this year, 21,000 people had emigrated. Between 2009 and 2014, 84,000 graduates left this country. This challenge will not be met by continuous regressive budgets which favour the rich and powerful in society. It can and should be met. All objective research indicates that Ireland is one of the richest countries in the world. The problems we face are two-fold. The super-rich in this country are coining it and we are paying approximately €8 billion per annum - which equates to the entire education budget - in interest on foreign debt. These issues must be addressed if budgets are to be fair and we are to meet the challenges ahead.

Money to fund State job creation programmes and the restoration of services must come from a number of sources. We should do first as the French have done and defy the fiscal treaty. The provisions of this treaty in respect of Ireland are perverse and should be reversed. That is what this country needs. We must raise income by way of significant taxes on the incomes and assets of the super-rich in this country and we must insist on the mutualisation of bank related debt. We must stop servicing bank debt until realistic negotiations in that regard have been concluded.

It has been said time and again that this country is broke. Nothing could be further from the truth. We were told not too long ago by former Minister of State, Deputy Joe Costello, that Ireland is the eighth richest country in the world, which is true. The gross domestic product per head of population in the Republic is greater than it is in Germany, France and the UK. Despite that Ireland is one of the richest countries in the EU, studies indicate that when it comes to the distribution of wealth Ireland is at the bottom of the table along with Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Latvia.

Significant income can be raised by way of the imposition of higher taxes on the super-rich who have gained from the recession in respect of their incomes and assets.

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