Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This time last year, the Taoiseach made a statement here regarding the impact of Revenue's review of flat rate expenses. This will affect 600,000 workers, many of whom are low paid. It covers a range of sectors. At that time, the Taoiseach said that no changes would be implemented until 1 January 2020, if at all. He told the House "I will make sure changes are politically proofed before they happen." We are five weeks away from 1 January 2020 and workers do not know if these flat rate expenses will be abolished. Revenue is very clear that the changes are coming in on 1 January. Has the Taoiseach had sight of these changes and has he politically proofed them, as he promised to do this time last year? Does he intend to politically proof them or does he intend to just allow this to happen without any input from the Government? Perhaps he will enlighten the Dáil as to whether the ongoing review by Revenue includes the unvouched expenses that only Ministers and officeholders can claim, notably the €3,500 in laundry expenses that are unvouched and part of the dual allowance. Is the review is just focused on retail workers, nurses, doctors, those within the different professions, bus drivers and all the rest, leaving officeholders and Ministers in this House exempt?

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