Tax Reliefs
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-25
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

While I vehemently disagree with the Deputy on this, and he vehemently disagrees with me on my position on it, I do not doubt his bona fides on it. Nobody, neither nor the Deputy, is suggesting that we have a monopoly on trying to support jobs. The Deputy wants to do it as do I. We all want to sustain employment. I accept that point but we have a difference of view on how to go about it.
I am very blunt and honest about this. I campaigned in an election and I stood in cafés, restaurants and hairdressers and I told people that if they voted for me and put my party back in government, we would pursue this measure, as did my coalition colleagues. We are now pursuing the measure. That is important. There is a democratic link, I suppose, to the programme that we offered people in the general election and the composition of this Government as well.
There is a cost. There is a cost to everything the Government does. There is a cost to not doing things too. I cannot misrepresent the previous budget. In fairness, we did not know about the war in Iran at the time of the previous budget but the pressure on these businesses has got even higher since then. The certainty we can provide the café owner, the restaurant owner and the hairdresser in our constituencies and communities that their VAT bill will, effectively, be permanently reduced from next week will, I genuinely believe, be a welcome relief to many of them.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-25