Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As we head into the summer months and preparations for the forthcoming budget start in earnest, I seek an assurance from the Taoiseach and the Government that one section of society will be looked after - the people of middle Ireland whom he likes to describe as those who get up early in the morning. No matter how early they get up, those not on the lower edges economically or at the upper levels, find life a constant struggle. Often referred to as the squeezed middle, they bear the biggest burden of demands on their income and receive the least amount of help from the State. They could be called the forgotten middle because that is what it feels like for them. They are the ones who go to work every day and pay their taxes which are higher than they were a decade ago. They are the ones who carried the country through the recession to reach the point we are at today, but they are getting nothing back. Their rent payments are soaring; their insurance bills have gone through the roof and their school and childcare costs have gone up. Fuel prices are probably at their highest ever level; medical costs are rising, as is the cost of electricity. Some are living with their parents, often with three or four children, while trying to save for a deposit on a house. They cannot find a house in the current market scramble which could be made even worse by the activities of the Housing Agency in buying large blocks of houses in private estates. They are the people who do not receive State benefits or grants to help their children to attend third level education, despite fees having increased by 131% since 2005. They are more or less being ignored by the Government which has most of its focus on other sectors of society to the detriment of those in the middle who make the greatest contribution to the economy. Once an Irish worker earns €34,550 a year, he or she pays half of every euro earned above the figure in direct taxes. Almost half of every €10 above that figure is taken in income tax, the universal social charge, USC, and pay-related social insurance, PRSI, leaving them with just over €5. It is all building to being a problem for the country in the future. The Irish Tax Institute has warned, for instance, that the income tax regime is hindering us in the global race for talent. I acknowledge that some slight progress was made in the last budget, inlcuding a small reduction in income tax for the self-employed and a minor reduction in the universal social charge. There will be greater fiscal space in the next budget to do more. My question to the Taoiseach is how will he look after those in middle Ireland next October in a way that will make a real and substantial difference to them?

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