Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to the House. I am seeking an update on the universal social charge. The Minister of State will be aware of a poster with the slogan: "Abolish the USC. Let's keep the recovery going." That slogan was used by Fine Gael during the 2016 general election campaign. I do not have a particular problem with the slogan. I took the time to look for this election material and found that quite a lot of it had gone. Interestingly, however, The Irish Timeskeeps a picture archive in which I counted at least 25 posters. Eight Government Ministers were pictured at various places, including Heuston Station, holding these posters. This was the main plank of their election campaign last year - "Abolish the USC. Let's keep the recovery going."

I downloaded all these posters from www.irishtimes.comwhich I would be delighted to send around to all my colleagues today. It is interesting that this clearly was the message. There was a quotation in the Minister's election literature, which was also quoted by The Irish Times. I will quote it here for the benefit of our deliberations:

Of all the commitments we are making in this election, this is the central commitment to our tax policy. It is a hated tax. It is a socially divisive tax. It was introduced as an emergency measure. The emergency is now over and now we are going to abolish this tax.

That quotation was attributed to the current Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan.

I note that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Varadkar, has spoken about a bigger package of reform, including the USC being merged with the PRSI. I do not know whether that is being advanced or not, but it is meant to be a possibility. Perhaps the Minister of State can elaborate on that.

I accept that there should be tax cuts for middle-income earners. At the end of the day, there is a section of our society who work hard, pay all their taxes, comply with the law, yet are falling out of the parameters for social insurance and social protection. They need to be addressed and Fine Gael identified that as one of the key issues in its election campaign.

I do not wish to be negative but I think there is a need for a social insurance fund. We need to build that up, realise that people want it, and be cognisant of their needs. More important, can the Minister of State explain where he stands as a member of the Fine Gael Party and Government that have advocated the abolition of the USC? Has there been a change of heart or mind? Is there a view that the USC should be merged into some sort of reformed PRSI package? I simply do not know and that is why I am asking the question. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could enlighten us.