David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I do not know whether he has seen the preliminary findings from the ESRI and its commentary on the budget. It breaks the income household brackets into three broad areas - low income families and individuals; middle income families and individuals and high income families and individuals and comments on the last six austerity budgets. In respect of this budget, the lowest income earners in the State saw their net income, according to the ESRI, drop by more than 1%. The middle income earners saw their net income drop by less than 1% and the high earners saw their income drop by a half of 1%. The commentary refers to the last few austerity budgets under a Fianna Fáil-led Government and states that, proportionately higher earners were asked to pay more.