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

Certainly we can all identify with very high levels of emigration that took place since the crisis struck in 2008. Many people were driven out of the country. In some years the best and the brightest left. The reason they left was that the policies that were pursued by the Administration leading up to those years proved to be a disaster. That is a matter of fact. We will not get them back by producing more adverse policies but will drive more of them out. The Deputy's proposal for a marginal tax rate for the self employed of 62% and for PAYE people of 59% would drive more people out. The OECD has done research on this issue. I have quoted the part which states that too high marginal tax rates will lead to migration. There is a clearcut difference between the position of the Government and the position of Sinn Féin on these issues. Sinn Féin is a high tax party. It wants high tax and high expenditure. My argument is that is the wrong economic model and we have experience of that in the past. It would damage the economy rather than support it. There is a general principle in economics and in taxation that if tax is raised on something the tendency is to get less of it and if tax is reduced on something the tendency is to get more of it. The tax on work in this country is personal taxation. If personal taxes are increased on work, there will be less employment and fewer jobs. If personal taxation is reduced, as the Government is doing, we have proved that we will get more. We can be criticised for many things but our success in job creation in such bad circumstances has been very good.

Let us contrast the two positions. We imposed a property tax, I think Fianna Fáil advocated it at one stage. We put a charge on scarce resources such as water because we think people should have a water charge which restricts usage in effect. If we have a scarce resource there should be a charge on it so that one does not let thousands of gallons of water flow down the drain. The approach of the Sinn Féin Party is different. Its approach is not to have a property tax, a tax on fixed assets, which cannot be moved abroad, or a tax on scarce resources, such as water, but allow it to be wasted, and at the same time it wants to put 7% on to the marginal rates of personal taxes. These are all free choices.

As I said to Deputy Michael McGrath earlier we are in a situation with a growing economy that there are choices. It is no longer the case that everybody has to follow the troika mandate. My argument with Deputy Tóibín and the Sinn Féin approach is that they are bad choices and would damage the economy, stop the growth that is now driving forward and reduce the number of jobs that are being created, if not eliminate them completely. That is where the alternative positions are and I presume we want to fight an election on that issue. I am absolutely convinced that Sinn Féin policies do not pass the economic literacy test. There is evidence everywhere that the kind of policies it is proposing are incoherent because it wants to exempt property and water from charges yet it wants to bang another 7% on top of the personal taxes. I know the Deputy will argue it only applies to the very rich and that it will only apply to those earning more than €100,000. I have seen several times, during my 34 years in the House, that policies were introduced with a floor or a ceiling and they drift on. The Government that has the first economic difficulty and cannot balance its budget because that will be the rule from two years onwards, one will find that the €100,000 ceiling will be reduced to €80,000 and to €70,000 and then down to €60,000. The Sinn Féin proposal for a 59% marginal tax rate and its 62% marginal tax rate for the self employed will very quickly apply at low middle incomes and it will gunter, if that is a correct English word, the economy and the prospects of extra jobs being created.