Still getting the links together from the Civil Partnership Debate yesterday (the bill has passed it’s Second Stage and has been referred to the Select Committee on Justice, Equality and Law Reform for the stage where amendments are put and debated.)

However I thought we might try assist Leo Varadkar TD (Fine Gael) in finding a partner he can marry and get a tax relief from (if the partner earns less than 25k).

Yesterday in his contribution to the Civil Partnership Debate (while supporting the bill) Deputy Varadkar spoke about the discrimination he faces as a single person.

I am single and live alone. Being single, I pay a lot of tax. I do not wish to be poor-mouthing but must state I probably pay 40% of my income in tax. As a result I have to pay the mortgage and utility bills on my own, which is the same for the many hundreds of thousands of single people in the State. Ironically, if I were to marry someone earning less than €25,000, I would be able to share the costs of living and reduce my tax bill by €7,000. It seems to be somewhat unfair that as a single person I am essentially paying more tax to subsidise other married people who may earn more than me. This anomaly of the tax system is designed to support marriage. This issue will also arise with civil partnership in that the Finance Acts will be amended to offer the same benefit for those who enter a civil partnership. Single people will effectively be subsidising the lifestyles of married people.

Why should single people have to pay €7,000 more in tax? I accept an issue arises where there is a family. However, in a family there must be children. We should consider changing the system so that those rights apply to families with dependent children. It is somewhat unfair that some Members with the same income as mine, who have stay-at-home wives who chose not to work but spend the day on the golf course or lunching, pay less tax than I do. I do not have an objection to their choice but I object to single people having to pay more tax so that other people have that choice. This anomaly needs to be addressed in our tax system.

So anyone want to design a personal advertisement for the Deputy? (applicants might also want to note that he also said getting rights from cohabiting together after only two years was a bit too short)  I also assume some of the Fine Gael Ladies Lunch crew won’t be too amused by his views on their activities.

Your efforts at ads are very welcome (by me anyway if not the Deputy).