Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

We have control of policy at a national level and we have previously debated this matter in the House. I am taking the opportunity to commend the GAA, which showed great courage in producing this report. I encourage other sporting bodies to do the same.

When will the Government provide an opportunity for the House to debate the latest report from the ESRI, which casts a long shadow over the next benchmarking deal? When will we see publication of the very first deal, which originally justified the benchmarking awards? It has been tucked away in a corner and now is the time for it to be published. Most importantly, however, the ESRI showed in its report that if moneys are available for tax cuts, they should be directed towards the indexation of the tax bands. A quarter of all taxpayers paid tax at the top rate two years ago, but now a third of all taxpayers pay at the top rate. If we are to do something positive in the area of tax reform, at the very least, there should be proper indexation of the tax bands in the next budget. This issue was not addressed in the last two budgets. Will the Deputy Leader provide time during the next week for a debate on the ESRI report and related issues?