Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept that there is a shortfall in 2023. We believe we have made adequate provision across all of the expenditure Votes in 2023 to meet the Government priorities. Within that there will be a lot of choices and decisions to be made but from our perspective, there is certainly not any shortfall in the budgetary position across Departments for 2023.

The Deputy made a point about income tax reductions. I make the point to her that if you have a static tax system and, at a time of rising incomes, you make no change to bands or credits, that is an increase by stealth. That is an issue the Government believes needs to be addressed. There is a programme for Government commitment to increase bands and credits. We have, thankfully, made progress on that in the last number of budgets. Coming up to every budget, we will assess the budgetary position and economic circumstances and make the best decisions we can.

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