Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

There is a tale of two countries currently. The foreign and direct investment sector is motoring away at the moment, but many elements of the indigenous sector, which employ the majority of people in this State, are in big trouble. Walking through any provincial town, you will see many shops that are shuttered and closed. We know that 40,000 jobs that existed in hospitality in 2019 will not exist this year. Some €3 billion of taxes has been warehoused from businesses that cannot afford to pay their taxes this year. We had a deficit of €7.5 billion last year. We have a national debt of around €250 billion that nobody in this House ever talks about and we are facing interest rate hikes from the ECB which will increase the servicing costs of that debt on this State in the future. All of that is eclipsed by racing inflation. Fiscal prudence is based on the fact that we take in as much tax as we need for expenditure. Does the Taoiseach agree with Fine Gael that there should be tax reductions for upper income earners in the coming years?

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