Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party and I want to be associated with the Taoiseach's remarks on the passing of Jimmy Magee who was a man of humour and knowledge who brought both enlightenment and entertainment to us all. We will certainly miss him.

I want to ask the Taoiseach about the forthcoming budget. With there being fewer than three weeks to budget day, it is important that we have an honest debate in this Chamber about the choices we face. During the past few days we have had the opening salvo in a phoney war between the Government and Fianna Fáil. On Monday the Taoiseach made it clear that he would like to increase the threshold above which people pay income tax at the higher rate. This proposal, designed to give no benefit at all to the poorest half of the working population, would clearly be regressive and its impact would be marginal. For someone earning €40,000, the gain would be the grand sum of €4 a week but only for the richest half of the working population. I hope it is clear that this bad idea should not manifest itself in the budget. Fianna Fail's view is that instead the 5% rate of the universal social charge, USC, should be lowered. Again, it would be a regressive measure, albeit marginally less so than the Taoiseach's proposal. It would benefit more people but only to the extent of €2 a week. It would be a tragedy if these were to be the only options with which we would be presented which would deliver a paltry dividend as against using the same sum of money, a modest enough €200 million, to make a real difference in the provision of services. Reducing college fees by €1,000 would cost €74 million; cutting class sizes in both primary and secondary schools would cost only €22 million; raising the wages of all those who work in the child care sector to a living wage would cost €63 million; and eliminating waiting lists for home care packages would cost €18 million. These are four substantial changes the Taoiseach could afford to make rather than giving a token amount to people who could really live without it when there are such pressures on services.

My question is straightforward. Will the Taoiseach accept that, having regard to the tight fiscal space available, that this year there is insufficient space to cut taxes? Will he give a commitment that instead, for at least the coming year, he will devote whatever resources are available which will be modest enough in the grand scheme of things to making a meaningful investment in public services that would make a difference to the people?

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