Around 900,000 workers in Ireland will not be able to avail of the new Stay and Spend scheme.
The scheme offers anyone who spends money in Irish restaurants, pubs, hotels or B&Bs money back as a tax credit.
People can claim 20% back on up to €625 spent between October and April of next year – meaning people can claim a maximum credit of €125.
However, almost 900,000 low-paid workers in Ireland do not pay income tax and, as such, get no benefit from the scheme.
On The Hard Shoulder this evening, Dun Laoghaire TD Richard Boyd Barrett said they should not be excluded.
“I think it is completely wrong to exclude them from this Stay and Spend, which is a good scheme,” he said.
“Everybody in this country, whether they lost their job because of COVID, whether they are a jobseeker whether they are a State pensioner, whether they are a low-paid worker, they have all endured incredible hardship under COVID.
“They all deserve a little bit of money in their pocket from this stay and spend scheme to give them a bit of a treat and bit of a break in these very dark times.”
He warned that has the second-highest number of low-paid workers in the OECD and argued that the best way to bring people into the tax net is to pay them better.
