Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak on the Finance Bill 2016. I welcome many of the elements of the budget which the Finance Bill will bring into effect, including the reduction in the rate of USC, which is one of the most hated taxes ever introduced in the country. Some people are giving out about the help to buy scheme, but we have to do something to try to get young people into the housing market. I hope this will give some comfort to people who want to live in their houses. Every Deputy in the House has young couples coming to them telling them they are just not able to get a mortgage to buy a house. When houses are available they go to their parents and grandparents. I hope this will play a role and they will be able to get on the property market.

The rent a room relief scheme is very good for Galway in particular, where we have NUI Galway and GMIT, which are two great colleges which bring in approximately 25,000 students a year to our city. Every year, there is a scramble for accommodation. In one house there could be up to five or six students in one room. I hope with the increase in the threshold it will make more rooms available to students in Galway city in particular.

I acknowledge that in other cities with colleges accommodation needs to be provided for students. If it is not provided, the colleges will be unable to take in students who must have a place in which to stay. Students are significant spenders within cities. They pay a great of money for food and digs and socialising, which are all part of the experience of going to college.

The Minister for Social Protection is talking about introducing a dole payment scheme for the self-employed. They always pay their taxes at the end of the year, but they have always been left aside. Many of them had no work during the downturn and they were not in receipt of social protection payments. I hope something will come from that proposal. I welcome the small reduction in income tax for the self-employed and the €5 increase in pensions. It is small, but it is a step in the right direction. I hope it will be increased by much more in the next budget.

While these positive elements of the budget go some distance along the road, there is a long way to go before we will have anything like fair play for the squeezed middle class. They made the most sacrifices and carried the greatest burden of the economic collapse. They did not cause the problem, yet they were asked to pick up the bill and endure the pain time after time in the past decade. They carried the country on their backs to the stage where there is a recovery in progress. They could also be called "The Forgotten Middle", as they have been hammered on all sides by taxes and charges. They are not earning enough to be comfortable, but their income is in excess of the threshold at which they could benefit from the State supports normally offered to those who are struggling. There is a disturbing lack of support for them and many thousands are struggling just to make ends meet. In almost all cases, the squeezed middle are both cash poor and time poor. Middle income earners still pay more in tax than they did seven years ago. As the Irish Tax Institute confirms, workers only have to earn €33,800 a year before paying half of every euro earned above that figure in direct taxes. If they are lucky enough to receive a €10 a week increase in pay, before they can even blink an eye, income tax, the USC and PRSI have grabbed almost half of it, leaving them with little more than a fiver.

The people in the middle have huge costs in dealing with endless bills for child care and property tax, as well as ever increasing insurance premiums. We all know by how much they have increased in recent years and continue to do so. The House is trying to address the issue and I hope we will find a solution to the problem. It is possible that the price of fuel will increase,which will, in turn, increase the cost of getting to work. All this is in addition to the financial burden of sending their children to school and then to third level. Many are not renewing their health insurance policies because they view it as a cost that they can cut from their stretched budgets, meaning that the State will bear a greater burden if they fall ill. I hope they will not. It is sad that, in some cases, pay day is greeted with relief rather than joy - relief that they have managed to again stagger through the last few days of another month with the remaining meagre few euro from their previous wage packet. The relief is short-lived, of course, as their wages are hoovered up in the following few days by bills for electricity, heating, child care and all of the other regular demands. An unforeseen bill such as a medical expense or a school contribution request is greeted with panic. The wheel keeps turning, month after month, with little relief in sight. The people concerned deserve a little fair play. They did not cause the economic downturn, but they have been asked to pay the most.

The measures included in the Bill are only a tiny step in the right direction. I urge the Government to take steps in the future to bring a measure of fairness to the people caught in the middle who are paying for everything and benefiting from almost nothing.

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