Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will confine my remarks to the universal social charge or USC, the issue addressed in the section, and speak on income tax when we discuss the relevant section. I welcome the provisions on the universal social charge. The Bill removes liability for the USC from 80,000 people, bringing to more than 400,000 the number of people who have been removed from this liability since the Government took office. These are valuable statistics that people tend to forget. By removing people from the USC net, the Government is putting money back into their pockets in a reversal of the trend of the past five or six years.

The positives must also be enunciated because we hear negative comment day in and day out from the Opposition side. When we have positive developments, for example, the removal of 400,000 people from the universal social charge net, they should be acknowledged. The Government wants to do more on the universal social charge and will do so in time. I will speak on the tax measures when we reach the relevant section. The positive aspects of the budget should be acknowledged because people tend to harp on about negative issues.