TÁNAISTE LEO VARADKAR has said he won’t apologise for the fact he doesn’t “think we should increase taxes”, after a member of the Commission on Taxation voiced his offence about comments Varadkar made about the commission.

Earlier this week the Tánaiste dismissed several conclusions in a major tax report by the commission, describing them as “straight out of the Sinn Féin manifesto”.

CEO of Threshold, and member of the commission, John-Mark McCafferty told RTÉ’s News at One today that he felt the remark was unhelpful, with Varadkar joining the show shortly after to defend his wording.

“I’m sorry that he feels that way, genuinely. Governments set up commissions to make recommendations and it’s up to the governments to decide whether to accept them or not.”

He added that he had spoken to a member of the commission who hadn’t taken offense to his comparison.

“What I said was that I thought it was a good report, thorough and objective. It was analytical. I thank them for doing it. But I did say, and I think it’s fair enough to say what you think, I hope we’re not in the place where you can’t say what you think anymore in politics.”

Varadkar said that he supported parts of the report relating to pay-related benefits but he was against recommendations related to taxes.

“I don’t believe we should increase tax inheritance. I don’t believe we should tax agricultural land. And I don’t think we should end the Help to Buy scheme for first time buyers this year.”

Also on the programme, Varadkar said that its not unusual for businesses to see their energy costs increase threefold.

He spoke in relation to an example pointed out on the show of a business owner in Roscommon who had seen her montly bill jump from €6,500 to €21,000. 

“The example you gave, unfortunately, is a typical one. Businesses are showing me their bills every other day. And while there are some exceptions, a trebling is not unusual, unfortunately. And that’s very worrying.”