Mattie McGrath: Calls to Abolish USE, Brands It Punitive

I move, I just can't find it here at the moment, but I moved there. I move... Abolish USE. Yeah, go to Markwood, thanks to my esteemed colleague in the opposition. Yes, USE, we're back to the dreaded USE, and I've spoken already. It's a punitive, regressive tax, and whether the Minister likes to correct me, and I accept being corrected, I never would deny that, but the difference now in the spots of the leopard, the leopard spots of the very same, Fine Gael, Aaron Grubman, and they committed to abolish it. And they also formed a programme for Grubman, which you supported them four years before that in the conference on supply, so you've been together for nearly 10 years. And you all supported it at the time you came in, it was introduced, you supported it, so, I mean, it's the same, two sides of a kind, you're the very same. And this tax, it's so, as I said, punitive, and so disincentivises people going to work. And I'm tired of saying this, I'm a self-implied, and I imply people, but it has to be rewarding for people to go to work. No matter what job it is, they must be meaningful, you know, that your sense of pride and everything else, and we lose that. When you make it unviable and un, I suppose, what's the word I want to use, you know, there has to be desire that you go out and you, a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and the fact that you derive satisfaction and you play your part in your country, and your nation, and to provide them for yourself and your family. And that's a noble vision, a noble achievement for anybody to do, a noble aspiration. But when you tax them like this, and you then renege on your government's promises to abolish it, it's like the Taoiseach telling us, with the last, the Taoiseach he's going to run full term. So we have three and a half months to run, and now he's going to tell us, it's all this morning, first time he admitted it, he's going to call it this week. So what kind of a message is that sending to the public? That you can't believe Ian Fockel, God Fockel is the song for which you can't. You can't believe any word from the Taoiseach, the Tarnister, or the Cabinet. Any word you can't believe from. So this tax is, as I said, regressive, and it's punitive on lower income people. While you have removed some of the lower income people, there are many, many other middle Ireland who pay for everything. They wouldn't qualify for local authority housing, they won't qualify for SUSE grants, they won't qualify for medical care, they won't qualify for anything, dental, anything at all, dental repairs, or any kind of treatments for their children and themselves. They're trapped in a situation that they have, you know, pay for everything, and can get no supports, of any shape, make or form. Whether they go to the hospital, or whether they get a medical card, or a doctor-only card, they can't get anything. So they're the people that you all talk about, and patronise, say, the people, your previous teacher, Finna Gale teacher, even though I struggle now to differentiate one evening from the other, Finna Gale or Finna Gale, I generally struggle to differentiate between Finna Gale and Finna Gale. They are the people that the former teacher, Bradker, said, the people who get up early in the morning, he wants to support them. You're not supporting the people who get up early in the morning. You're not supporting them in any shape, make or form. They get up on a lower or a FOD, get up in the morning, and go to work, as I said. And I meet them, I canvassing you canvassing. And you must meet them. And the two types of people I'm meeting that are so downtrodden and so disappointed in the country and the future of the country and lack of confidence, I won't vote at all many of them, because of this situation, they work all day, work all along. I met a lady last night, and hopefully there won't be any relief either, who was 10,000 in a pension. And she'd love to have that unlocked. A young woman, paying €3,800 a month rent in the village of Kilcheelan, in Clannmel, and travelling to work and trying to put a deposit together. They have some hope of putting a home together for themselves. If they're paying that on a mortgage, they'd be on the road somewhere. And that won't be, but they're so downtrodden and trapped. And the fact that they have to work, they're both working, her and her husband, and two lovely small children. And, you know, it's a noble aspiration to have a family like that. And they are downtrodden with taxes. Pay for everything and get nothing. This budget did nothing at all for them. Nothing at all for those cohorts. And the last cohort of people, this budget, did nothing for them. OK, we've doubled payments for people in social welfare, pensioners, and many others, in an effort, nakedly, unashamedly, to buy votes. And they call the election now when those payments are settled in and people have a field good factor. But that money would go like snow off a ditch. And they'll sit there in Kilcheelan and say, right under the Cormor Mountains, it's a cold and bleak place in the winter comes, with lovely weather this week, but we're going to have cold weather and heating bills, you know, maintenance, everything else. And many times have difficult landlords. And as I said, they are the people. And the other cohort of people I'm meeting, and I'm sure you're all meeting them, their whole estate, just the private estate, and the saddest thing in most of the houses was their self and their husbands in the houses now, in the family, Emma, gone. All over the world. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong. And many of them no sign of coming back. And grandchildren, I know myself because I have 11 beautiful grandchildren, and I know myself the feelings, the grandchildren in all those places. And they're saving up to go to Australia to see them. And they know, and our brightest and best. And their hope for them and dream was that they would grow up and they would be able to support them in their autumnal years. And they would be able to be around them and to be gone. House after house after house. Tears in the eyes of some of the people. It was so sad that Ireland today was doing this. Ireland was doing this. We're looking after our own. And these are the bright brain pool and the enablers and the highly educated that we need in our economy, that we need in our country. And they are going and going and more going. And you're offering them no hope in this budget. You're offering no hope with USC. None whatsoever. Only cruise development tax. They're not able to get any supports and then not able to get on any property ladder. So, Minister, it's more and true and worse than the day and the parents left me home and said some aging and some ill and some crying and some saving up to go to Australia. Make those long, long flights to Hong Kong and places to a strange land that they never had any desire to go. It's the parents. But now they feel they have to go to see their children, adult children and their grandkids. And that's a noble thing to be able to do as well. I'm fortunate that all my grandkids are winning, ten of them are winning, nine of them are winning a mile of me and the other two, God bless them, are only 13 miles away. But it's so sad and we're all meeting those people and we're going to meet many more of them as we're knocking on the door. So, what do you say to those people? What do you say to those people?