Housing and employer PRSI
The Leader responded to Catherine Ardagh’s housing concerns by stressing supply and affordability, then criticised proposals to increase employer PRSI as a tax on jobs. Rose Conway-Walsh challenged the fairness of the approach.
How do I follow that? I thank the 19 Senators who spoke for raising multiple issues.
Senator Catherine Ardagh raised the important issue of housing. We all agree with her on the importance of getting first-time buyers into the market. It is a question of having a combination of supply and affordability. The housing strategy put forward by the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, includes a range of measures. No single solution will work on its own. I hope the Budget Statement next week will be the catalyst in allowing first-time buyers to become homeowners.
I thank Senator Rose Conway-Walsh for the budgetary lesson. I was listening to her. However, I point out to her that, based on her alternative budget, hers is a party of taxation; it is a high tax party. She is proposing new taxes in the order of €1 billion. Her party is proposing a third rate of income tax that would put the rate of tax over 50% if PRSI and the universal social charge are included. To be fair to the Senator, I do not know whether she was part of it.
Comment on this
I will refer to this matter again tomorrow.
Comment on this
Any measure put forward by a party that wants to penalise employers by increasing their rate of PRSI to the tune of 15% would be imposing a tax on jobs. It is important that we focus on those who contributed to helping the country to recover, namely, the people in the middle who paid for everything. They should get something back in the budget, not those who made no contribution whatever. There is a maxim that if we all pay a little, it helps.