Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

My view is that we have to raise additional revenue. Workers deserve a break – for example, with the universal social charge – and loading taxes on people who are being hammered in one way or another by a cost-of-living crisis is not appropriate. The crisis has been alleviated a little but, as Professor McMahon pointed out, inflation is still way ahead of what it was before it started. Workers continue to lose out because of inflation, so they have to be given a break. We have to build the houses and infrastructure, which leaves only the option of raising additional revenue.