Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A person earning €8,000 or on €150,000, pays at a tax rate that is proportionate to the earnings. Why move away from that model and move towards a model that does not conform to the equity we seek to achieve in a taxation system?

The founding principles of any tax system are administrative simplicity, effectiveness and equality, or equity. The system proposed does not honour the principle of equity. Equity is measured in two ways, vertically and horizontally. Where there is vertical equity, everybody pays the same amount, irrespective of income. This measure does not apply in this case and, therefore, the Minister is introducing a charge.

We are talking about water as a utility. If the Members opposite were living in a house with 50 light bulbs that were on all the time and I were living across the street in an apartment with one light bulb on all the time, one would argue the Members were paying 50% more in their big mansion across the road. Why should I, in the apartment, pay exactly the same amount?