Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not support amendment No. 2 for the reasons I have outlined on numerous occasions. I recognise that the Deputies putting forward the amendment have others that would see revenue coming in. They are not just suggesting a massive tax cut but the amendment is not well thought out. The USC is paid on single incomes. The amendment refers to a threshold of €90,000. This would mean the top 15% of earners would fall into the gap. The sum is nearly three times the average income. I am not sure whether everybody earning less than €90,000 would be exempt or whether somebody earning €91,000 would have a tax liability based on the €1,000 in excess of the threshold or whether she would be paying on the entire €91,000. Either way, one would fall into the trap set by the Government. In the last election campaign, it promised to abolish the USC. The proposers of this amendment, the members of People Before Profit, are arguing for a threshold of €90,000 in respect of the abolition. Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party are stating €80,000 and €70,000. I have made the point time and again that we cannot afford to do this. It is quite interesting that we are actually paying less tax now on all of these incomes than just before the USC was introduced. This is because the USC replaced two other forms of tax, the income levy and the health levy. If they were still in place and if we had just carried that through, we would actually be paying more tax on our income today than we are. I recognise the Deputies proposing the amendment have tabled others to raise additional revenue but we need to be maintaining and protecting the tax base. We need to be investing the proceeds in areas of social need, such as in housing, health and child care.

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