Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To be clear, there are no plans for a deferral. It is the intention of the Government that this levy will apply from April of next year. It does require legislation and it will be in the Finance Bill. The legislative process is the opportunity for us in the House to properly debate it and make sure we get it right, which is very important. The devil is often in the detail when it comes to a new tax. Certainly, if people have realistic alternatives that they want to put forward, we will listen to what they have to say. I think it is right that the construction industry bears the cost, not the general taxpayer, but any levy that we impose on the construction industry will in some way be passed on, and we need to be realistic about that. I heard Deputy Doherty say earlier that the fines the banks are going to pay might in some way be passed on to customers. If we put a levy on construction industry profits, which is a potential alternative, does the same thing not apply? No matter what we do, there is going to be some element of it being passed on to customers. We just need to be honest with ourselves about that.

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