The childish petulance.

I support Deputy Shortall's proposition. We have a progressive tax system, which has been defended under successive Administrations even in the toughest of times. That is something that we, as a country, should be very proud of. However, the reality is that the kinds of changes introduced by the Minister in this Bill see that progressivity fraying at the edges. Looking at the direction of travel and at some of the arguments made by his party colleagues with regard to the diminution and narrowing of the tax base, I …

That was very profound and inspired.

I will speak to the grouping. The Minister is aware of the views from this side of the House. They were well ventilated on Committee Stage. Fundamentally, the point is one made at committee just two weeks ago that there should not be any cash without conditions. We all welcome the move with the increase of the cap. We want to see an industry that is vibrant, vital and dynamic but which also respects the rights of everybody who works in the sector and makes sure everybody is properly remunerated. Ultimately of cours…

Today is a bit of an emotional day for me. The Minister will recall the work done by the Government in which I served to start to address these issues, issues that became all too apparent to us in light of the Clerys debacle. I will never forget two phone calls I received that afternoon, the first from Gerry Light, the then deputy general secretary of Mandate trade union, soon followed by another call from my good friend John King of SIPTU. As the then Minister of State with responsibility for business and employme…

There is a deeply concerning report in The Irish Times today by Jack Power about the Peter McVerry Trust. It outlines that in 2018 the trust bought nine apartments in Birr, County Offaly, which had been developed by the then auditor of the charity. This raises very serious and obvious conflict-of-interest concerns. The level of homelessness has exploded under Fianna Fáil's watch by nearly 50% since July 2020. The State will spend over €240 million on homelessness services next year. Vital public services have been …

I am glad we are finally getting around to having a debate on this topic. At the outset, I state that the Labour Party supports withdrawing from the ECT. This is one of those rare instances in which the Government and the Opposition are, broadly speaking, in agreement, though we may disagree on the mechanics, so to speak, regarding how we get there. We in the Labour Party have numerous concerns regarding the ECT. Our environmental concerns are perhaps the most straightforward. Put simply, as others have done, the E…

The elephant in the room in the area of recruitment and retention of vital workers in the home care sector is pay, terms and conditions. It is that simple. Some of the best people I know work as healthcare assistants, HCAs, and healthcare support assistants, HCSAs. They are the best of people, but they are among the least valued by employers and the State. As the Minister of State knows only too well, they deliver vital services across every community to, by definition, the most vulnerable in society. Earlier this …

My apologies to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and to the House for my late arrival, and to the Ministers and my colleagues. This was unavoidable. When will the Minister published the Revised Estimates with specific reference to the health Estimate and what will the Minister's planned Supplementary Estimate for health be for this year?

I think we can assume the Supplementary Estimate will be very significant indeed based on the information that is in the public domain at present. I think everybody in this House, or at least a very significant number of Deputies in this House, and indeed experts would be of the view that the Minister must re-examine the planned expenditure in health for next year. That is very clear. Quite frankly, I say to the Minister that he owes it to the 900,000 people who are on waiting lists who will inevitably suffer. The …

I find it quite extraordinary that we are in a position where the Minister for Health would be preparing to introduce plans here in this House and ask the Dáil to approve a budget which the HSE chief executive and he consider to be entirely inaccurate. This is about parliamentary accountability. Our primary concern should be for the well-being of all those of us who depend on a decent universal public health system. There is a question, however, of accountability. That the Dáil would be expected to pass an Estimate…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to enable and assist the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission better to perform its functions in relation to protecting consumers from abuse by undertakings of a dominant position by imposing unfair purchase prices, for that purpose to amend the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014, and to provide for related matters. The cost of the basic staples on which we all depend has grown enormously in the past 18 months. While grocery infla…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on the Bill on behalf of the Labour Party. The legislation gives effect to many of the proposals announced in budget 2024 two weeks ago, including the important changes to the corporation tax code, which are the most significant and far-reaching since 1997. While the finance Bill, by definition, focuses on the taxation changes, many of which were articulated in the budget, it is important that we take a step back and look at budget 2024 in the round. For the first time s…

You will get on well so.

No, he has not.

Ministers are acutely aware of the impact that labour shortages and skills gaps in construction are having on the ability of the Government to meet its own modest targets for residential construction. Does the Minister intend to review and expand the critical skills list in terms of craftspeople, the provision of additional skills and addressing those gaps for the construction industry?

That is welcome information. At a committee meeting during the summer, I believe the Minister told my colleague, Senator Sherlock, that the review was under way. The figures are stark. I am looking at the October 2022 national skills bulletin from SOLAS, which identified a particular need for plumbers, carpenters, welders, computer numerical control, CNC, programmers, and electricians. These trades are not on the critical skills list. Will the Minister confirm that some of them will be included on the list conseque…

That is okay.

I understand the point the Minister made in his initial contribution that we must first look to our EU partners and the capacity of skilled individuals across the Union to fill our gaps. Something we could do quickly would be to agree that apprentices should not be paid any less than the national minimum wage. We have an SEO in construction and some of these issues could be usefully discussed in the context of SEOs and the general collective bargaining system across construction. Some of the indications I am gettin…