Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister should not be disingenuous. The question is very clear. Why did the Minister’s proposals for income tax and USC, as they stood when the question was tabled, disproportionately favour those on higher incomes? With what moneys the Minister had available to give back to people, why did he disproportionately favour those on higher incomes over those on the lowest incomes? It is a very straightforward question and the figures come from Social Justice Ireland to suggest that the Government decided to give 12 times more per week to a couple, both earning €125,000 a year, than it gave to a couple struggling on the poverty line. The Minister’s examples in the budget document showed that the people on the lowest earnings who are paying tax got back one quarter of what somebody on €70,000 got. I do not see how the Minister can say that is fair when the people who for the most part are out on the street or expressing their outrage about their inability to pay water charges are saying they cannot pay these bills. That is the issue.

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