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

I will share time with Deputies Murphy and Barry. Both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance got quite annoyed with People Before Profit this morning saying that we never recognise the good things the Government does, and that we are just looking for reasons to give out. I refute that absolutely. Of course, we acknowledge the income and wage supports, grants to SMEs and so on to sustain people during this unprecedented pandemic and they are to be welcomed. Indeed, we have supported many of them, but it is also our job to point out deficiencies and unfairness.

We completely reject the idea that ordinary working people should pay the bill for the Covid pandemic, and that is why we oppose plans to increase taxes on the family home. It is a tax that is fundamentally unfair, which we opposed from the beginning, because it taxes the roof over the heads of ordinary working people who have paid stamp duty and so on. We have outlined the alternative ways to raise money repeatedly in budget submissions. We do not imagine someone can pluck money out of the air; in fact, for the most part we do not even suggest that we borrow to the extent the Government is borrowing, which could cause us big problems. I am not saying that we borrow nothing, because money is cheap at the moment, but we have proposed in budget after budget that the way to finance additional spending in health, education and housing, without having to impose austerity measures, is by taxing wealth and those with the highest incomes. Let us take property as an example. We propose that people with two homes should pay a substantial property tax on the second home. If they have multiple homes, a steeply progressive property tax should be imposed on what is clearly wealth in those cases. That would be fair and would redistribute wealth. It would be an actual tax on wealth rather than a tax on working people.

We also completely reject the idea that arbitrary deadlines should be set to cut the pandemic unemployment payments of people who have lost their livelihood or income because of measures, which are out of their control, taken by the Government to deal with the pandemic. I want to make an appeal on behalf of musicians, people in the arts, and so on who are a long way from recovery but the Government is threatening to cut their PUP. As I pointed out to the Taoiseach earlier, many of the musicians who need the latest music and entertainment business assistance scheme, MEBAS, are excluded from it.

I have been asking for a year for a financial package for taxi drivers. The Government keeps saying it is coming but it never arrives. Will there be a recognition that taxi drivers carry costs of about €10,000 to €11,000 per year, have had no income for a year and a half and have been excluded from all the grant support schemes during Covid?

I repeat the call to expand the places and make it easier for people to fulfil their educational potential. People doing postgrads and doctorates in things like psychology, radiology and so on are burdened with excessive fees, having to work unpaid placements and living in poverty. Those issues should be addressed.

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