Michael D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A tax break is a cost to the State and we cannot choose to ignore it. The 58,000 people in employment today who were not in employment this time last year are the only way we can come out of this recession. It is being called the "great recession." That is probably not a bad thing; we did not slip into a great depression. Those people will be the engine of recovery. I welcome the JobsPlus and JobBridge schemes which are moving in the right direction.

I have sympathy for separated couples. I accept that it probably was not feasible for the tax credit for a separated couple to be available to two people when a married couple or a couple in partnership has none. Equally, when couples separate there are financial implications that are difficult to measure. I welcome the opportunity for the tax credit to be made available to one person who is working if the other person is not working. I would like to think that perhaps there is more we can do, although I do not know if there is. I would like to think there would be a very deep scrutiny and analysis of this measure if it is having a very detrimental impact.

It is no fun for people who are separated. It is not easy. I have friends who are separated, one of whom, a garda, is older and has moved out of that poverty trap, which it is for some people. He told me that were it not for that tax credit he would have been in a very dark financial place. It is something we should analyse. As I said earlier, I am not one to ignore the fact that a tax credit is a cost to the Exchequer but if undue difficulties result from this we should revisit it.