Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for attending. I wish to reverberate the questions Deputy Boyd Barrett posed. Increasingly, as I approach the completion of my third year in the Dáil, it is disappointing that a full discussion has not really taken place in ordinary and conversational English about the fairness of the taxation system, how incomes are generated, whether they are corporate or personal incomes, and how the burden of contribution to society through taxation is distributed across the society. I am a chartered accountant and I have had experience in preparing and auditing accounts across the different sectors in this country, ranging from insurance to manufacturing, distribution, exporting, agriculture, co-operatives and so forth. I have been very lucky in that regard. If one reports an operating profit and takes off the financing costs of that operating profit, one arrives at the net operating reported profit. One pays a tax bill in a given year in respect of the net operating reported profit of the same year. Then it is very fair and reasonable to say the effective rate-----