Yesterday's budget was strong on rhetoric and somewhat poor on substance. There are many issues one could discuss such as the lack of initiatives on small-to-medium-sized enterprise, the lack of transparency on the health Estimate, water charges and the lack of a substantial public investment programme, but my focus this morning is on the tax changes introduced yesterday. Without question, they are unfair and disproportionately benefit the wealthy and discriminate against low-paid workers. A worker earning €17,500 a year will only gain €174 for that year, which does not include the water tax. Someone over €70,000 or someone on €150,000 will actually get €746 of a benefit. We live in a low-wage economy and there are approximately 660,000 people earning between €10,000 and €30,000. Most developed societies are moving towards low-wage economies and governments must intervene in a positive discriminatory manner to improve the lives of people on very low incomes. A couple with a single earner on €41,000 will still only get €174 whereas a single person earning over €70,000 will get €746. That is not to mention the impact of water charges, which will by definition impact to a greater extent on low-paid workers and low-paid working families.

In relation to the tax question, I ask the Taoiseach a basic question. Does he think it is fair that someone on €100,000 plus gets €746 whereas someone earning less than €30,000 only benefits by €174? Is that a fair way to do business? Finally, what is the net figure the Government will receive in revenue terms as a result of the imposition of water charges?

We signalled very clearly that the mandate given to Government was to fix our finances and get our country working. As far back as early summer, we indicated that the priority in respect of tax was to deal with the crushing burden of 52% imposed on workers through a combination of dealing with the tax band, the USC and PRSI. Deputy Martin asked me if it is fair. It is very fair to say that Government set out with the specific objective of reducing that burden so that the tax changes being made over the next three years will result in approximately 15,000 extra jobs being created over and above what might normally come from growth. That is very different from the 52% tax burden imposed by Deputy Martin's own Government which made the country uncompetitive, unattractive and not fair in the sense of the proportion of tax people had to pay. Deputy Martin's Government did this while borrowing to go to €15 billion with rising interest rates and at a time of out of control emigration and unemployment falling off the cliff. What we have said is that the changes in the tax system - the reduction in the rate and the increase in the band - are designed to create 15,000 extra jobs over three years. The path out of unemployment and poverty is job creation. This is the start of a three year programme of tax changes designed to do that. It is an entirely different matter from the perception that is being put abroad that tax changes are in some way related to the issue of the provision of Irish Water and water for businesses and consumers.

We said very early on that we needed to change the tax system to reduce the burden of tax on people. We have taken serious numbers - 80,000 - out of USC at the lower level. For those who still have a tax liability, there is a reduction in the USC at the two lower levels. In the first budget the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, brought in, 330,000 were people taken out of USC altogether. The increase in the tax band will take many thousands more out of the higher rate of tax liability altogether. Beyond €70,000, it has been between €30,000 and €70,000 that has been the area where people have had to pay all of the sacrifices, all of the charges and it is there that the priority impact of the budget has been. The tax changes are the first of three years to bring about a reduction in the rate of tax and other adjustments that will create 15,000 jobs over and above anything that occurs in the normal way.

The Taoiseach did not answer the specific question I put to him. Is it fair that someone on €18,000 gets €174 a year before he or she has to pay the water charges while someone on €100,000 gets €746? That is the basic proposition I put to the Taoiseach and I asked him a very simple question. Is that fair? I asked the Taoiseach a second question, namely what is the net revenue figure expected from the water charges regime. The Taoiseach did not answer that.

To come back to the first question, there are more than 660,000 people earning between €10,000 and €30,000 in our society today. The Government has taken a deliberate decision to ignore them. That is what was decided in the budget yesterday. When one puts in water charges and so on, they will not be better off as a result of the budget, they will be worse off. That is the bottom line. The Taoiseach took a political and principled decision to ignore people earning less than €30,000 and he did so to favour people earning over €70,000, over €100,000 and over €140,000.

Does he believe it is fair that someone on a low income will receive €174, while someone on a high income will get €764?

As well as the fact that the Labour Party agreed to it.

I have already pointed Deputy Micheál Martin to the plan we have set out to change the burden of 52% tax imposed on people. Deputy Micheál Martin is aware that this is the first step in this and the next two budgets to reduce the 52% level of tax. The increase in the threshold above which the universal service charge, USC, becomes payable, at €12,000, will remove a further 80,000 from the charge, a move that will benefit lower paid workers, on top of the over 200,000 taken out in 2012.

What about those who will benefit by only €174?

Over 400,000 people will now have no liability for the USC. A further 33,000 will be removed from the higher rate of income tax as a result of the increase in the bands introduced yesterday. The 1% cut in the 52% tax rate will benefit 635,000 middle income earners. For earnings above €70,000 and €100,000, two new rates of USC have been introduced. While everyone benefits from the reduction in the tax rate, for those earning above €70,000 and €100,000, that is set aside by a higher increase in the USC.

Unless they are paying at the higher rate.

The emphasis has been on lower paid workers and middle income workers from €70,000 down.

That is the opposite, as every commentator has acknowledged.

That is where the priority is. For two middle income public servants, the saving will be about €100 per month.

They are the ones the Government has gone after.

The billing process for Irish Water will commence from October. There will be a surge in applications to be registered before the end of October. Until we have the absolute numbers registered for the household charge, as a consequence, we cannot determine what the actual level of income will be from Irish Water until the bills are issued and paid.

Does the Taoiseach have an estimate for it?

Yes.