Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Returning to the question about the overall tax position and the idea of having people working and making sure they get their due reward, it is important that all the social welfare thresholds are also increased in line to ensure people do not lose entitlements whereby they have gone over a threshold due to a pay increase, are taxed on that and end up being a lot worse off. A great deal of synchronisation has to happen between Departments to make sure that if there is a pay rise, the effect of that is in the pocket of the worker and is not eroded by other services being taken away from the worker, such as a medical card. I encounter many situations where young people who work for the summer do not qualify for a Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant as a result. In these times when people are crying out for workers, we are penalising people who want to work for the summer to earn a few euro because that is being taken into account when they are being assessed for the SUSI grant.

See this speech in context