Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will make the point, as he often has, that people who pay more tax will benefit more from tax cuts and while such people do pay more tax, if the Minister really seeks to make work pay, then people who earn €20,000, €30,000 or €40,000 really need his help. He must use all the tools at the disposal of the Government collectively to deal with that issue because the reason there are welfare traps and the reason it is not viable for many people to work is because of secondary benefits, namely, rent supplement and the medical card, which they lose as soon as they start working. This is an issue the Minister could have dealt with in this budget but he has not.

Members were promised the budgetary process would be opened up and would be much more transparent and accountable but this simply has not happened. At midnight last Friday night, the White Paper on Estimates of Receipts and Expenditure was published and lo and behold, there was an additional €1.5 billion in Supplementary Estimates. Members have been given no information today on that €1.5 billion and are only seeing half the picture.

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