Mr. Ian Talbot:

I could well be wrong but I think single people move on to the top rate of tax at less than the average wage.

Tax rates also apply heavily at very low incomes here. The Deputy also made a point that we will not tolerate an increase in taxation. Our organisations have supported, for example, the introduction of property tax, which affects people earning more than €100,000. Part of the issues we have experienced in funding the State, probably going back to 1977, pertains to local authorities not having the money. As they were not generating the money from the users of their services, they funded themselves with measures such as development levies and planning. We need to get this right and that is the reason we have been supporters of property tax, albeit perhaps not exactly as it has been done, to fund local authorities to provide local services, including things such as housing, to people who need them in the areas in which they live.