Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform

5:30 pm

Photo of Peter MathewsPeter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have two points on expenditure. The Minister asked for suggestions and solutions in respect of the micro-budget. One solution is to increase corporation tax by 2.5%. This would not make corporations blink, be they domestic or foreign. It would produce a figure of €670 million on the basis of the last returned corporation profit figures. We should get over the sacred-cow mentality; it is just a nonsense.

Second, if we introduced a national recovery surcharge of 5% on incomes of €120,000 and over, it would produce a sum of €520 million based on the last Revenue returns. These sums amount to €1.2 billion in taxes that are very collectable.

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