Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Surely the Taoiseach cannot believe it is credible for him to say he did not increase VAT. He increased it from 21% to 23% in his first budget. Could he please acknowledge that it actually happened so that everybody else need not scratch their heads wondering whether it happened or whether it was a figment of their imaginations? The Taoiseach was very clear that it did not happen. Today he is going on with a pretence, a fiction that his comments were made in the context of the Greek Prime Minister's concern about the Greek tourism industry. This is not the context in which the Taoiseach answered my questions.

Getting rid of the PRSI exemption for 1.1 million workers was a tax increase, although the Taoiseach does not want to call it that. The same applies to other things he said did not happen. I have a list of €3.5 million worth of extra charges and taxes. Before the last election, in every budget, the Taoiseach voted against every measure to correct the deficit and to get the macroeconomic position right. Again, he continued with a fiction that there was another way. It was wrong. When he came into government, he and the Tánaiste had to renege on everything they said and break promise after promise.

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