In January, I stood in this Chamber and called for the abolition of the universal social charge. Today, in light of the recent protests, the ongoing energy crisis and the relentless cost-of-living crisis, I find myself compelled to make that call again but I want to go further. In recent weeks, we have heard much talk from Government about increased expenditure, more subsidies and so on, justified by the ever-growing projections of a budget surplus. There is another model that deserves serious consideration; reducing and abolishing the burdensome taxes rather than endlessly expanding spending, most especially the USC. The truth is that it is far more efficient to leave money in working people's pockets than to take it from them, funnel it through an inefficient State apparatus and return a fraction of it through complex schemes and supports.

At present, the State is demonstrably inefficient, perhaps the most inefficient in western Europe. Anyone who looks at the delays, overruns and ballooning costs knows this to be true. This Government will run out of road if it continues to substitute subsidies for real reform. We cannot subsidise our way out of every crisis while ignoring the structural problems at the heart of public spending. Fianna Fáil backbenchers were told they would have influence at budget times. If that influence is real, I call on them to use it to reduce taxes, not to invent more and new subsidies that merely mask the problem. We can halve prices at the pump through tax abolition tomorrow. Likewise, every euro taken in USC is a euro that cannot be used by a household to make an energy bill, fill a trolley or cover childcare. Until inefficiency within the State is tackled head-on we should be reducing the burden on ordinary people, not increasing it under the guise of compassion. Abolishing the USC would be a clear signal that this House understands that the best way to help people through a cost-of-living crisis is not always more government but more freedom to keep the money they earn.