Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy knows the reason for that. Those who are on low levels of income already pay lower rates of tax than they have paid in the past. Let me give some figures on that. Somebody earning €15,000 will have an effective tax rate next year of 0.8%. By comparison, somebody earning €55,000 will have an effective tax rate of 28.9%. As the Deputy knows, the income gains in nominal terms are higher for people who are at the top than people who are on middle and low incomes because they are paying more tax and their effective tax rates are higher. A person earning €18,000 will have an effective tax rate in 2018 of 4.2%. A person earning €75,000 will have an effective tax rate in 2018 of 34.4%. Therefore the more people earn, the higher the contribution they make in personal taxation and the higher their effective tax rate is. That is progressive personal taxation.