Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that and the same applies to myself.

I seek clarification for the House on the following. Is USC now standard policy? Have we moved from the situation where it was introduced as an emergency measure during the crisis and where every citizen was asked to make a contribution?

In principle, I agree that every citizen should make a contribution according to their ability to pay. I had a constituency office in Galway city and a lot of people came to it who were totally social welfare dependent. There was a cycle of social welfare anxiety and depression. Some people were on disability allowance. There was a mix of social welfare. These people got extremely anxious before budgets because they felt they had no control over their lot. I thought to myself that we need to find a way to enable such people. It was my view at the time that even if they made a contribution of €1 per week they would have felt they had more of a contract with the State. I know I have opened a new can of worms with this issue. Currently, social welfare as a contribution is not considered income and, therefore, is not taxed which is a whole other ball game. There might be more well-being benefits to it than we think.

Let me return to the issue of USC. Can the Minister of State clarify whether we have moved from USC being an emergency measure to standard policy? Can he clarify how much revenue is collected from USC compared with the two levies?

We are recovering but we have not made a full recovery because there is still a gap of €5 billion annually in the deficit. I am sure that sum is less now that the Department has taken in €1.7 billion extra in the last quarter. Is the Minister of State planning to move back to the previous figures of just taking in, through the USC, the sum generated by the two levies?

Public confidence is eroded when a small charge is introduced that then begins to grow. It is the thin edge of the wedge argument. That is exactly why people are outside marching about water charges today. They are outside because nobody believes, come 2019, that water charges will be available to my home, of more than one person in a family, at €160 net. If the Government could prove that will be the case, and I asked the same question before as the Leader will confirm, then the water charges argument would dissipate.

As I have said on a few occasions in this House, Ireland is uncompetitive as a tax nation. Our top tax rate of 41% starts at €32,800 but its equivalent in France starts at €70,000 and in Germany it starts at €245,000. Ireland's capital gains tax rate for enterprise is appalling at 33% and does not act as an incentive to invest here. Ireland's USC cripples people on low wages. I am not saying people on low wages should not contribute something. Agency workers who earn €10 an hour have told me that the USC improvements, due to commence on 1 January, will result in a gain of €3 per week.