Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

What we have just heard is simply propaganda for the rich and powerful. It is an excuse to allow the rich and powerful - people who have massive incomes and assets - pay little or no taxation and certainly not their fair share. The budget was for the super-rich. It was unequal. For example, 1.8 million workers are on incomes of less than €30,000. That is 40% of the workforce, and they got no relief in the budget. The vast majority of the €356 million for tax relief in the budget went to people with significant incomes, certainly well in excess of €100,000. Allowing the rich and powerful to avoid paying their fair share of taxation is simply not compatible with providing decent, modern public services. That is why we have a housing emergency, 10,000 people homeless, 780,000 people living below the poverty line, 70,000 children growing up in poverty and why the Society of St. Vincent de Paul received 137,000 calls last year and paid €27 million to needy families.

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