I thank the Deputy. I would be interested in seeing that research if it is possible for the Deputy to give me a copy.

The Deputy will be aware there is tax relief available on medical expenses and on many different forms of healthcare. I entirely recognise that for a family looking after a child who has a very high level of medical need, the financial costs involved are exceptional. What the Government tries to do through the supports we make available to that family, through measures in the social welfare code and through our tax code, is to provide a meaningful contribution to the costs those families face. I know that, in many …

The issue of the funding of the very important services to which Deputy Naughten refers is separate to the operation of this credit. I know the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Minister for Health did an awful lot of work in the run-up to the recent budget to increase significantly the funding available for many of the services the Deputy has referred to. The Minister, Deputy McGrath, also worked with the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, in regard to the help that can be given to young childr…

I thank the Deputy for his two questions. That threshold was last changed in section 149 of the Finance Act of 2003. The Deputy will be aware of the operation of the credit. It was set in 2003 and I do not at this point have any plans to change it further, although I am aware of the role it plays in supporting families in the gifts they make from a parent to a child. However, with all of the other competing demands on the Exchequer at the moment, I was not in a position to change it in the recent budget.

The Deputy is correct that the non-indexation of different thresholds more often than not leads to an increase in tax revenue. As to what has been the change in inflation since the last change was made in 2003, the change in inflation in recent years alone would mean that the real impact of that threshold has now increased, given it has been left unchanged. I cannot at this point give the Deputy an indication as to what will be in next year's budget as we are still dealing with the Finance Bill for this year's budg…

Yes. An increase to €5,000 would have an approximate cost of €1.1 million.

I gave a short answer to the Deputy's first question and I will give a short answer to the second one as well. It is a very low share of the total amount of tax that we take in. I accept that it has not been changed for some time and I thank the Deputy for bringing it to my attention.

I apologise to Members for keeping them waiting. I have just come from the Dáil, where I was taking Leaders' Questions, so I could not get here any quicker. I thank Senator Higgins for the substantive amendments she has tabled and the important matters she is raising regarding this legislation and its future operation. I thank her also for her acknowledgement of the importance of the debates currently under way in the European Union. I am very much aware of, and understand, the issues she is raising. In addition to…

That may be so, but a safety net is only credible if it recognises that countries might not need it because their national finances are sound and resilient. How would a credit net be realistic or credible if a country in excellent economic condition, with very low debt, in surplus year to year and a growing economy with multiple sources of employment and income growth and no macroeconomic imbalances, also qualifies for use of the safety net? The very nature of a safety net is that it will have criteria for access a…

I have a principled objection to these amendments. I believe that the need that Senator Higgins refers to is better discharged through the normal functioning of the Oireachtas and the normal procedures of accountability between the Minister and the Oireachtas committee. As I indicated in my opening contribution, I do not believe that there should be further reporting requirements for a member of Government on this matter beyond the normal procedures that are in place. In particular, I have a concern about amendment…

The Senator spoke about how we can better understand the engagement between the European Commission and the European Stability Mechanism. When this treaty comes into force, a memorandum of co-operation between the ESM and the European Commission will be published. That will be publicly available on the websites of both the ESM and the European Commission to indicate to stakeholders how the Commission and the stability mechanism will engage with each other. Amendment No. 8 relates to the engagement the ESM will have…

It is quite a literary horizon from Discworld to the entrepreneurial state to Capital in the Twenty-First Century . Terry Pratchett, may he rest in peace, wrote about much but I missed his book on European monetary union, if he wrote one. If he did, I am sure it is worth a read. On the views of Piketty and Mazzucato on the future of Europe and economic policy in relation to it, the degree to which Ireland and Europe are already responding to the issues Mariana Mazzucato has championed about the entrepreneurial stat…

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this immensely important issue. I want to begin by acknowledging the extraordinary trauma, anxiety and stress that all those who have been afflicted by the awful change in the building blocks of their homes have confronted and endured. I have been aware of this issue because I worked as a member of the previous Government to bring forward the scheme, which in light of the continuing challenges the families face, the Government now accepts needs to be strengthened. This is why I am…

I thank the Deputy. The last thing I am concerned about is my schedule, whether it is busy or not. All that matters is how we as a Government can meet the needs being raised in the House by Deputy Doherty and others in a compassionate and fair way while also being conscious that the funding involved and the commitment from the Exchequer is very significant. The Ministers, Deputies Darragh O'Brien and Michael McGrath, and I are aware that as we deal with this matter, we may well have other challenges to which we mus…

Deputy Doherty-----

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The Government and the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, are very much aware of the change we are seeing in community transmission and the level of Covid-19 incidence across our country. Of course, we take heart in the fact we are in a very different position from where we were a year ago due to the success of the vaccination programme of the Government, the resilience of the Irish people and the extraordinary work done by all our front-line workers in healthc…

There is great value in hope as we look to how we can lead our country through this awful disease but the strategy we have is not based on hope. We have a strategy that is based on putting in place public health guidance with immense resources from our country to equip our hospitals, GPs and nurses with all possible measures and supports to help them deal with the approaching challenge. The Deputy compared us with other countries. Every country is different and the health conditions and geography of every country a…

In my experience of engaging directly with farmers and the agricultural community, those who most understand the challenges of sustainability and what is happening in nature in front of our eyes are those who earn a living from it and engage with it every day on their farms with their herds. I fully understand the anxiety about what the future could bring. It is a future and an anxiety that stretches beyond our agricultural community. Of course I understand that this issue is of fundamental importance to farmers. T…

I understand where the Deputy is coming from. This is the reason Pillar 2 funding is now €900 million higher than it was in the previous scheme between 2016 and 2020. This is an increase in funding of 30% for Pillar 2. Deputy Canney will know better than me that it is sometimes the case that funding made available through the CAP or through the Government directly has conditions and requirements attached to it. This funding should be used to support our farming community and farm incomes when farmers are going thro…

I thank Deputy McNamara for raising this matter. This is an issue that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, and I acknowledged in our budget day contributions. We acknowledged that we have seen, particularly across the summer period, a steady increase in the inflationary and cost-of-living pressures that many are facing. The Government is well aware of the additional challenge and cost that these are adding to families, businesses and workers all over the country. We appreciate th…