Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, but the Deputy's arguments are based on the assumption that it is the Government's intention, if re-elected, to abolish USC completely for all levels of income. That is not the position. As I have done previously, and particularly in the last two budgets, we capped the benefits at €70,000. We will have a clawback so that these very high benefits will not accrue to high earners. I am not introducing a budget this morning. I am simply signalling that there will be a significant clawback, so the figures the Deputy has quoted are effectively redundant and will not apply. The details of the clawback will be provided in the course of the early days of, or before, the election campaign. Effectively, we are talking about an election commitment with regard to how, if we are re-elected, we will handle the USC over the next five years.

The Deputy questioned the period involved. Last October we put the 2016 budget in place, and that is fully funded. Therefore, what we are looking at for the future concerns 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and, indeed, 2021. In the same way as the 2016 budget was introduced in October 2015, there is an opportunity for the incoming government to introduce the 2021 budget in the autumn of 2020 if they go the full term. There is therefore a five-budget spread right out to 2021.

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