Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

These are not normal circumstances and this is not a normal budget. We thought we would be dealing with Brexit and we are dealing with this pandemic instead. The only way I can put it is to say we need to provide people with the supports required. We need to do all we can and to be seen to do so. It is straightforward. It has been noted by many people here that, unfortunately, the carbon tax proposals in the Bill are regressive. They will impact on those who do not have resources, who have less money and are not wealthy. They will have a particular impact on those who live in rural Ireland and who do not have a huge number of alternatives. That is a mistake. There are no two ways about it.

We welcome the increases in the PUP during level 5 but I will take some time to deal with a few questions. Others have already spoken about the difficulty and worry people have about the tax liability that may relate to the PUP. This is another thing that gives people the idea the Government is not backing them and it needs to be rectified. There is also an anomaly where some people applying for the PUP may not have PRSI contributions due to the fact that they are paid less than €352 per week. A requirement that is not necessarily stated is that, to gain the PUP at the moment, people need to have made one PRSI contribution in the previous four weeks. These situations are being dealt with. People are being given a PUP-related email address and the issues are being worked through but it is an anomaly we could do with sorting. We could be in this circumstance again at a later stage and we need to get these problems sorted as quickly as possible.

I recently engaged with the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, about ensuring small self-employed operators would be able to avail of debt warehousing and getting an extension for filing returns to 10 December. I welcome that. It will deal with many cases but there is also another issue. I have been told today that Revenue has stated it will be pragmatic in dealing with people who are given the surcharge but who may not necessarily avail of this debt warehousing or may not be aware of it. We need to be very careful with that. I call on the banks to be more pragmatic with forbearance. I think the Government is going to have to call them back in. We are hearing stories of individuals and businesses not being offered the sort of forbearance that is absolutely necessary and they are expected to pay as if their earnings are normal. In some cases the businesses have been profitable but they are in the circumstances they are in and we need to back up them and our people. It is as simple as that.

See this speech in context