Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I did not say they are very wealthy. However, when one gets up to €200,000, we are talking about very wealthy. I am not saying anyone over €100,000 is superwealthy but they are not struggling. Those earning the average industrial wage or below it, which comprises the majority of workers, are really struggling, however.

Set against that, if one shifts the tax burden from those earning over €100,000 to provide significant relief for those earning below that figure, can the Minister imagine the incentives for those on low and middle incomes? We never talk about that. The argument seems to be that the people over €100,000 must have all these incentives, otherwise they will not come back to the country or work. What incentive does someone on the minimum wage have? Where is the incentive for someone sweeping the road? Where is the incentive for the student nurse? The argument about incentives never seems to apply to the low-paid workers, those who are struggling. Instead, they must be there for high-paid earners.

The Minister said many of our graduates have emigrated and will not come back because of tax rates here. That is not true.

The biggest reason they are not coming back is because they cannot afford a house because we have made an absolute mess of housing policy, rather than it being about marginal rates of tax or income tax.