Paschal Donohoe: USC will not be abolished

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has confirmed he is no longer seeking to abolish the Universal Social Charge (USC), as Fine Gael had vowed to do in the 2016 general election.

Mr Donohoe has said it is his intention to merge the USC with PRSI, as promised by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

Mr Donohoe said: “We have a new Minister for Finance and a new Taoiseach. We are entitled to make our assessments of the landing points for important policy areas such as this.”