Enda Kenny and Micheál Martin clash over origin and future of USC

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has hit back at Fianna Fáil demands to maintain the USC, insisting Fine Gael is standing by the plan to scrap it and that the charge was only necessary because Fianna Fáil ruined the economy.

Mr Kenny made the remark in response to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin’s comments yesterday that cutting the USC is “not in the land of reality” in light of growing national and global economic concerns.

Mr Martin said the potential risks posed by Brexit, the election of Donald Trump in the US, and an increasingly divided EU means plans to scrap the USC entirely by the end of the decade should be postponed.