Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and redistributing it among poorer people for good social objectives, is flawed. As I stated, a single person with a gross income of €70,000 may look very well off but is paying more than €25,000 of that in personal taxes. The solution required is not that of the Deputy but to do everything possible to grow the economy, put more people back to work and ensure there are decent pay increases coming back into the system. In so far as tax buoyancy is available, it should be used to give back to all social sectors, particularly the low paid and those whom I believe comprise the squeezed middle earning salaries up to €70,000. That is not to say that people earning more than that do not need to have some relief also but my point is that they do not need disproportionate relief. With the crudeness of the economic instruments, such as a tax rate, there can be a disproportionate benefit if one runs a 1% reduction on the marginal rate of tax for incomes of up to €300,000 or €400,000. There would be a huge gain in that case, and that is why there is a cap at €70,000.

It is not that those of us in the Government parties do not understand how difficult it is for people to live because we see it in our constituencies all the time. We just have a different set of solutions. Fundamental to that set of solutions is our approach to income tax because it is another instrument that helps to grow the economy. That is the difference.