Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is exactly why it will be possible to increase spending on public services. I am happy to organise a briefing for Deputy McDonald and Deputy Pearse Doherty. The way tax works is that if one is a self-employed person, a farmer or a business and one has made losses in a previous year one can off-set them against future tax liabilities. The same thing applies to banks, for example. However, in order to ensure that we do get some revenues from banks we have introduced a specific bank levy, which is only applied to banks in order that we get revenues from them. Between now and 2021 the bank levy will bring in €750 million.

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