Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The socialist left does not accept the framing of the prebudget debate as an either-or between public spending increases and tax cuts for middle-income workers. We say that both should be done at the expense of higher taxes on high earners and profits. I want to ask about proposed the €1,000 tax that will be put back in workers' pockets at budget time. I suspect that Fine Gael is all talk and no action on this. After all, in 2016, the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform promised that the universal social charge would be abolished. Seven years on, the charge is still there. Is the Taoiseach prepared to scrap the universal social contribution for every individual earning less than €100,000 a year and create a new 30% tax rate that would be paid for not by curbing spending on public services but by extending the tax base by putting in place a new 50% tax rate for those earning more than €100,000?

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