Is iomaí duine atá i mo Dháilcheantar a théann amach ag obair go dian gach lá. Like in the Taoiseach's constituency and many others around the country, people in my constituency go out and work hard every day and they need to understand that the Government has their back in ensuring work continues to pay. We need to continue making progress on tax and ensuring low- and middle-income workers in particular see that work pays and they get the worthwhile results and desserts of the hard effort they engage in every day.

Will the Taoiseach support me in calling for measures to assist those hard-pressed families up and down the country and to continue to ensure hard work does pay and there is fairness across the board?

Aontaím leis an Teachta. Tá géarghá go dtuigeann na daoine a bhíonn ag obair Domhnach is dálach go mbeidh faoiseamh le teacht. I am confident that in the forthcoming budget we will have a comprehensive framework to try to programme decisions on tax and other areas to help middle-income and low-paid workers with their tax burden.

We have significantly reduced the tax burden for the low-paid. In particular, the number who are not paying tax has increased significantly in recent years. Without question, there is a need to provide tax relief to workers. We will take the opportunity in the next budget. Obviously, a lot of work and discussions have to continue with the three parties in government before the finalisation of proposals in respect of the budget. That is one of the issues that is certainly under active discussion.