Finance Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2021-12-14
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Paul Gavan (SF), Labour Panel

I thank the Minister for the extended reply. I appreciate that. We have clear ideological differences here and should acknowledge that. I am fascinated that, when it comes to the wealthy in society, we need to give them incentive after incentive, or else they may not stay here. When it comes to ordinary working people, for much of the past six months, we have heard that pandemic unemployment payments are too much and employers are no longer able to find workers. There is one rule in place for people on low incomes and one for people on high incomes. The Minister's refusal to countenance even a report on what could be achieved by tapering income tax credits and a levy on high incomes puts him to the right of the British Tory party. Even Johnson, perhaps the worst and most extreme prime minister in recent times, has acknowledged that tapering income tax credits is important. Where does that leave Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on the political spectrum?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2021-12-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:57+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-12-14