Dr. Donal de Buitléir:

The abolition of the "double Irish" tax arrangement in the budget was a good move, which addressed the most egregious example of the funny stuff. While there is more to do in corporation tax, it was well done.

I am concerned about unemployment traps. EU numbers show that the unemployment trap for somebody on half the average wage is 87%. For three years in the 1990s I was on a committee which examined the issue, and it is time to study it again. It may be related to the jobless household issue, and there is work to do on it. Now is the time to do some work on the sustainability of the State pension. We need to address it before it becomes a crisis.

We have taken €2.8 billion out of tax reliefs since 2008, and this is often not factored into the distribution issue. The USC base for taxpayers in general is lower than the income tax base because the State pension is exempt from USC, and this comes to €6 billion. At the top of the income distribution, the USC base is wider on average by approximately 5%. There are large variations in the category. Some people would not use tax reliefs while others use significant amounts. That was probably a positive. Like many issues in this area, it is complicated.