Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Homelessness has been mentioned here on several occasions but not this week. A debate was called for, which I support. There are many homeless people. I am deeply concerned at the increasing number of young people who are homeless and living on our streets not alone in the capital city, but in many provincial towns, and also young families living in dilapidated caravans at the bottom of fields or the bottom of their own home gardens who have nowhere to go. An urgent debate is required to establish the extent of the problem and the number of homeless persons, particularly as many local authority houses in various counties throughout the country lie idle. Some of these are in need of repair but that is not an excuse. I call on the Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, to come to the House for a debate on the issue.

An issue that is of concern to me and many middle income earners is the universal social charge. The universal social charge is imposed on persons earning €59,999,00 gross per annum. The amount of additional tax paid by a person earning €60,010 gross per annum is of the order of €1,350. I call on the Minister to remove that tax. The charge was 4% for those earning between €16,000 and €60,000, and it is now 7% for those earning €1 more than €60,000. I call for an urgent debate on the issue before the next budget and ask the Minister to take that into consideration. It is income tax.