Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

That leads on to the point I was making and the question for the Minister to answer. Given the possibility of a disorderly Brexit, uncertainties in other areas, the demands and requirements for public spending on a whole range of areas - I will not list them - is €700 million really enough? If, as I would suggest, it would be far preferable to have much more - I do not think anybody could dispute it would be preferable to do that - does the Minister not think it is time to look at raising extra sources of revenue from areas that Fine Gael has been unwilling to look at previously? I cited the example of Dr. Stephen Kinsella. He said that when he first thought about financial transactions tax, for which we have been advocating for a long time, he did not like the idea of it. He has now come around. He has now said, given the staggering scale of financial flows into and out of this country, that this is a form of behaviour we need to tax both to constrain it and as a potential source of revenue. That is just one example.

I also mentioned employer's PRSI and closing some of the big corporation tax loopholes, particularly those benefiting the big multinationals.

Labour skills shortages are developing as we near full employment. I would argue that there is considerable underemployment in sectors of the economy which could help deal with that problem. However, in order to deal with it we need to do something to remove financial obstacles to getting into education, further education, postgraduate education and so on. We need to do something about the cost of childcare. We need to take measures which will cost money but actually increase labour market participation to address this very serious problem for the economy. Does the Minister accept that we need investment in those areas?

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