Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The USC plays a vital part in meeting many of the expenditure demands placed on the Exchequer. At over €5 billion, its yield is an important source of revenue for funding all of our public services and, as such, I have no plans to abolish it.

It is important to point out that, in 2016, joint research by the Department of Finance and the ESRI found that the USC represented a more stable form of revenue than income tax. The findings highlighted that USC revenues would fluctuate by less than income tax revenues whenever income was volatile, for example, when the economy moved from a point of significant growth to contraction. Given the openness of the economy and its susceptibility to economic shocks, the USC’s contribution is important in the context of stability in the State’s revenue resources, which the Deputy has to recognise as being important. He spoke about the Exchequer making a greater contribution in order to abolish the television licence fee and fund other expenditure demands, but here he is asking us to abolish the USC. That would narrow our tax base and significantly increase expenditure. That is not a sustainable fiscal position.

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