I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle very much. I am sharing time with Deputy Duncan Smith. It is said that RTÉ does too many repeats. So does this Government. There is some truth in the hackneyed description of a "The Late, Late Show" budget, with one for everyone in the audience. It is worse still. It is a "Reeling in the Years" budget in that it is a lazy rerun of all that was wrong with budget 2023. There are tax cuts that favour the better-off again. There is a failure to properly fund the public services on whic…

More than 20% of workers are still on low pay, and deprivation rates went up four percentage points after last year's budget. The Government had to follow this up with a mini-budget in February because they got it so wrong this time last year. The Government would not need to spend so much today if they got things right then. Those who are most in need are still paying the price for below inflation social welfare increases last year. I remind everyone that there were no increases to child benefit or the living alon…

We need to move more quickly to a real living wage, not the rebranded, watered-down version Government has in mind. In its costed alternative budget, Labour has ring-fenced €1.3 billion for a new public service pay agreement. The talks have yet to commence, but this would allow for a cumulative increase of in the region of 5% next year for nurses, healthcare assistants, teachers, SNAs, gardaí, council workers and civil servants. Looking at the documents, there does not seem to be any Government allocation for publi…

It is state-sponsored vandalism and the victims are first-time buyers and communities throughout the country. We have anything between 25,000, 70,000 or 170,000 homes lying idle in the Ireland of 2023. The Government is that switched off it cannot even properly measure the scale of the problem because it simply does not seem to care. Property and property rights mean everything for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Until that changes nothing will change. If a person can afford to leave a home vacant for years or a buildin…

No mention. There has been no mention of it.

On a point of order, is amendment No. 4 being taken in this tranche as well? If that is the case, would the mover of the amendment be prioritised to speak?

However, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle also indicated they would be taken together, so surely there is some latitude for the mover of the amendment to speak.

I did. I indicated clearly.

Essentially these amendments do not involve the carbon tax. We are talking here about the excise duty on petrol and diesel. The Government has agreed that it will extend the period to March next year and have another phased increase in August, to the best of my recollection. We are proposing that the Government should go further. It has acknowledged the reason for postponing this planned increase is because people are hurting due to the cost-of-living crisis and the difficulties households are facing. We have no id…

Behave yourself.

This is what the Deputy wants. He is a child.

Hear, hear.

There is a growing debate in Ireland and globally about wealth inequality and the concentration of wealth in the hands of all too few people. The domicile levy was introduced in 2010 by one of the Minister’s predecessors, the late Brian Lenihan, and it was designed to get super-rich tax exiles to make some form of a contribution to the Exchequer at a difficult time for our economy. In reply to me last week, the Minister indicated that in 2021, only 13 people had paid the domicile levy, with €1.6 million collected. …

I thank the Minister. As he said, the lower limit of the levy is set at €200,000 per year. Figures suggest 25 tax exiles paid it in 2011, the year of its introduction following the passing of the Finance Act 2010, but that fell to 13 people in 2021. It has effectively halved since its introduction. Why does the Minister believe that is the case? The Revenue Commissioners keep records on income tax returns and people are obliged every year to indicate to Revenue whether they are based in this country or exiled for t…

Declarations of income tax returns. My understanding is individuals must declare, when they are making a return, whether they are tax-resident.

I hope the Minister will agree it is concerning. Given the drop in the number of both returns and outturns since the establishment and introduction of the levy, it ought to be kept under review. I hope he will agree also that high-net worth individuals should contribute more to the Exchequer and to the running of public services in this country from which they benefit. I draw attention to comments made by the Commission on Taxation and Welfare in its report of last year, when it made the point the outturn from the …

There is no process.

We can set our watches and mark our calendars to predict this issue. It arises every July and August in my constituency. It is predictable but also solvable if the will is there to modernise, update and reform a system that owes more to the 1970s and 1980s that it does to a modern republic. Largely thanks to the work of one of the Minister's predecessors and our former colleague, Ruairí Quinn, families and young people now have a diversity of choice and a plurality of options with regard to the ethos of the school …

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to speak on the Labour Exploitation and Trafficking (Audit of Supply Chains) Bill 2021 in the names of my colleagues Deputies Ó Ríordáin and Sherlock. I am sharing time with Deputy Sherlock. This is Ireland’s first legislation on regulating corporate activity in respect of labour exploitation and trafficking. As an internationalist party, and as part of the wider international labour movement, it is the Labour Party’s historic and moral obligation to e…

We may not use the entirety of our ten minutes but let us see where the journey takes us. I note the Minister of State's remarks in respect of the Government having greater ambition than is laid out in this legislation. I would take issue with that. There is no doubt that developments in respect of the directive have, in some respects, overtaken the ambition of our own legislation. If the Government were ambitious, it would have legislated to put this on a mandatory footing before now. In truth, given the Governmen…