David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The measure we are debating to increase in the amount that is allowable for the small benefit exemption is not something that I would oppose. However, in the overall context of today's budget, the biggest losers in this budget are the squeezed middle - a group the Tánaiste has spent much time in this House talking about as has the Taoiseach - and they have been badly let down.

Some 1.8 million workers in this State who get up early and go to work, as the Tánaiste once famously said, will not get 1 cent from the Government's main tax measure in this budget. The Tánaiste, his party and the Government shafted 1.8 million workers today when it came up with a package of €1 billion on tax measures. Someone earning €130,000 will gain €830 a year under Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party measures today on taxation; someone earning €35,000 will get only €190. That is a clear definition of a regressive set of tax measures. It is an absolute disgrace that those workers who earn the least and the squeezed middle whom the Tánaiste and his party keep talking about but do not deliver for are the ones who got shafted today. I do not know how he and his party can stand over a budget that excludes 1.8 million workers from its main taxation measures in the budget. How can he justify giving to somebody earning €130,000 a tax cut six times more than somebody who earns €35,000? That is unforgivable. It is not fair and it is not a good use of taxpayers' money. The €1 billion that was spent on taxation measures should have been spent on targeting those on the lowest incomes and the squeezed middle rather than the high earners as the Government has done.

I will finish on this because others want to come in. I say this time and again and many people in Fine Gael get very upset when I say it. I say it because it is a fact. Fine Gael represents a cosseted privileged class and every time the Tánaiste comes in and proposes measures like this where the Government delivers for that cosseted privileged class, he proves it again. That is what the Government has done with this overall package of taxation measures today.

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