Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to have this argument all day and there are other people who want to speak but I am not asking for a report to compare our tax system with others. We can all get those from the website of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, or other websites such as those of the international taxation institutes. I am asking for evidence to support the theory that the current marginal tax rate is a drag on employment. The ESRI came before this committee last year and told us there is no such evidence. It is pointing us in the direction of investment in child care, which it says would do more for the labour market than cutting marginal tax rates. Of course, if marginal tax rates are raised to a certain point they will be a drag on employment but there is no evidence to suggest this now. If the Minister or his officials can tell us they have a report that says otherwise I am happy for them to send it to the committee. There is no point, however, in the Minister's telling us that he will send us other reports that I am not asking for.

We need to start having statistical arguments here. Tax is raised in the budget. I acknowledge that and have argued for it in some areas. Are they as sustainable as income tax? The Minister is doing exactly what Charlie McCreevy and the Progressive Democrats did. They reduced the income tax rate, which is one of the most stable forms of taxation and placed the tax burden on other transient taxes. The Minister has raised tax on stamp duty and intangible assets and others. Let us see how stable they will be in the next few years. The Minister is paying for that by cutting income tax so that it is the lowest in the OECD countries.