Councillor Pat Dunphy and I visited O'Shea Farms in Piltown, County Kilkenny recently, alongside the Minister, Deputy Heydon. On their behalf and following extensive conversations with the Minister, Deputy Heydon, I have a proposal to put forward to help address labour shortages that are affecting businesses such as O'Shea Farms and others across horticulture, manufacturing and hospitality during their peak season. They cannot get the staff to work overtime. This is not because the staff do not want to do the work, but because overtime pushes them more often into the higher tax bracket and they end up with less money in their pockets rather than more. France has recently introduced a tax relief on overtime earnings, allowing workers to keep more of their hard-earned money that they receive for additional hours worked. I believe that this could work well here in Ireland too. Would the Minister support a work-more, keep-more initiative in Ireland whereby overtime earnings could be made tax free up to a reasonable annual limit or maybe have a flat rate on all overtime at 20%? This would allow workers to keep more of their earnings. It would also help businesses fill vacancies, improve productivity and help them to grow. The proposal is a simple one. If people are willing to work extra hours, they should be keeping more of that money in their pocket.

I thank Deputy Callaghan for raising this important issue. Critically, we all know in society that work must pay. We must ensure that we are rewarding enterprise and people who are working because their contributions keep the economy going, pay for all our public services and, ultimately, protect the most vulnerable. That is why, in budget 2027, the Government collectively needs to make a big statement on income tax. It needs to support so many working families and ensure that they are getting more of their hard-earned money back - their own money back in their pockets - to demonstrate the Government's absolute clarity that we want to continue growing our workforce, supporting working families, ensuring that work will pay and that we reward enterprise.