Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is right; we are at critical stage. However, I believe that people who go out to work want to see the benefit of that work. It is not all always about the pay scale. It is actually about what will happen in terms of tax credits, especially for the lower and medium income earners. If they get an increase in wages, what often happens is that it puts them over a threshold for student grants or medical cards or whatever. I also think the transition from a 20% to 40% tax rate is too much. There has to be a more graduated form of taxation. This all has to come into line because the private sector just cannot keep paying out more wages.

The person who is working needs to see more money coming into the household to meet the cost of living. There should also be tax credits for the cost of traveling to work where a person does not have public transport such as trains and buses. People have to go to work and pay for that themselves. It is important that we get all of this in line in order that working pays as opposed to not paying.

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