Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

I thank Deputy McDonald for her questions. On the property tax issue, from an IBEC perspective, we have 7,500 member companies, the vast majority of which are in the domestic economy. No matter what we do on the taxation side, it will impact on their businesses in the domestic economy. The priority for us in the taxation proposals in our budget is to limit that damage on growth and jobs. It is nothing the Deputy will not have heard already today.

From an employer's perspective, we have a particular insight into the Government's proposal as to how the property tax will be collected. We have now heard from the Minister for Finance that the property tax will be collected through Revenue and through adjustments to personal income tax credits. In some cases, although not in all, it will be deducted by employers in monthly payroll systems. That is something about which we have quite a concern in terms of employers administering those payroll systems.

Our concern is that if we go down this route of administering the property tax through the income tax credit and the personal tax credit system, it will have two consequences for employers and business. It will put wage pressure back into the workplace. We know that from recent experience where we have had income tax increases. When people have less money in their pay packet, there is a kick back to the employer. We are going through a phase when we are trying to reduce costs and be more competitive and I think that will be unhelpful.

As Mr. Paul Sweeney said, practically every economist thinks that property tax is a good idea by nature of it being a tax on property and less damaging to growth. If we administer this through the income tax credit system, it could de facto become a tax on work and a tax which only workers will be pay, or, at the very least, it could be perceived that way. That would be damaging. It could act as another reason not to take up a job. If one looks into the behavioural economics of this issue, how one frames it-----