Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I note the Minister did not answer my question. I asked him to explain to us the rationale for giving tax breaks to, for example, people in this House. Does he think it is fair and why did he do that? I am still waiting to hear his answer to that question.

The Minister talks about the SWITCH model, which looked at the impact of the budget across the board in various measures within it. I know the Taoiseach quoted this and made various claims on it. In particular he quoted the Budget 2024: Beyond GDP - Quality of Life Assessment. Unfortunately, my amendment on that was ruled out of order for some reason but on page 12, which the Taoiseach was talking about, he talked about how people in the lowest decile benefit by 4.7% and people in the highest decile benefit by 1.5%. Those are percentage wins or benefits but if you are talking about a 4.7% increase in the minimum wage, which is a low income, or in income that is even lower than the minimum wage, that is an awful lot less than 1.5% off the top decile. It is probably a fourfold difference. Would the Minister not accept that this is a far more honest and true way of assessing the impact of the budget? It is not about the percentage increase but the cash increase. You cannot pay your bills or buy stuff from shops with percentages. It is actual cash. The impact of the budget is that, in cash and real money terms, those who earned least got least and those who earned most got most. In my book and in the books of most people, that is a regressive move.

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