David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a very real connection between what I am saying and the reality for people who have to pay these charges. I also remind the Senator that people pay income tax and they pay it for services. They are paying more taxes than ever before, which is the point we are making and that is why we want this to be poverty-proofed. Almost everyone now pays the universal social charge and only those on very small incomes are exempt from that charge. There are many people who should not be paying the USC. The essential point we are making is that at a time when people are paying more taxes than ever before, it is unfair to ask them to also pay all of these indirect taxes as well.

The final point I wish to make before the Minister responds is that all of this is damaging to the very principle of taxation. I have no difficulty in paying taxes and I believe the principle of taxation is good. We should pay taxes and should encourage others to pay them, as long as they are fair and progressive. There are many people now wondering why they are paying taxes because they are seeing a drift away from progressive taxes towards indirect taxes, where wealthy people pay the same as those earning only ¤200 or ¤300 per week. They do not see this as fair. It is doing enormous damage to the whole principle of taxation and it is wrong. The Government must go back to the drawing board and make sure that when it introduces measures such as water charges that it properly equality-proofs and poverty-proofs them.