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

This is a very simple amendment. I have stated before that I oppose the increase in the threshold. People who come from different political ideologies have found a voice now that they are on the other side of the House but when the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection claimed that people availing of SARP would create 50 jobs those individuals were very silent. I make no apology for bringing forward amendments to close loopholes which the Government has accepted today. We will deal with them later, in respect of the "double Irish" and tax resident companies that are not tax resident anywhere on the globe. In response to the accusations levelled against me and my party that we are trying to close down incentives for people to take up employment here, that is wrong.

There is no opposition to the extension of research and development reliefs or to many of the other provisions that are in this Finance Bill, or indeed other Finance Bills I have debated in this House on behalf of my party in the years since I was elected to this Chamber. Where bad tax practices like the double Irish system exist, and where companies are allowed to be incorporated here without having any tax residency anywhere in the world, Sinn Féin will stand up to say that such loopholes are wrong and to make proposals to close them.

This amendment relates to a tax relief that applies to a small number of individuals. The statistics show that the individuals who benefit from the relief have not created substantial numbers of jobs in the Irish economy as a result of that relief. It is important to put this in context. Those who were absolutely hammered by the austerity that was imposed by this Government, its predecessor and current Opposition Deputies who were previously supportive of this Government are still suffering. The special assignee relief programme allows individuals to have over €125,000 of their income not declared for tax purposes. People can allow themselves to have 30% of €425,000 of their earnings excluded for income tax purposes. I refer to what has been the 41% rate of tax and will now be the 40% rate.

The big problem is that the Minister is introducing a measure in this area without any evidence to back it up. I am surprised that the so-called Reform Alliance is disputing the idea that we should have evidence when we are debating a proposal to extend a provision that allows people to set aside €125,000 of their incomes for the purposes of direct taxation to a limitless number by allowing them to set aside 30% of incomes of €1.5 million for tax purposes. That is what is being put before us today. It is right and proper that these issues should be challenged. It is fit and proper to demand from the Government the evidence that suggests that a handful of individuals will be able to benefit from having tens of thousands of euro of their incomes exempted from the 40% or 41% rate of direct taxation. I accept that it will be subject to PRSI and the universal social charge. The answers we are looking for in this regard have not been given on Committee and Report Stages.

I assume the Minister of State will say that this is being done on the word of IDA Ireland. I remind him that 150,000 people recently took to the streets of towns and villages across this State with a simple message, which was that water charges should be scrapped. Many tens of thousands of people will take to the streets on 10 December. I am sure hundreds of people will take to the street in my own parish of Gaoth Dobhair on Saturday. Their voices do not find an echo in the corridors of power. By contrast, the handful of individuals who are able to have massive amounts of money written off their tax bills seem to have no problem getting their voices heard in Government Buildings and in the corridors of power. It is about time that the Government started to provide evidence of why such a measure should be extended to a limitless income figure. The Government should start to listen not just to the few, but to the many.

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