Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It stands that we are going to discuss it a wee bit further. I think this is crucial. Unless we can get sight of this type of data, it will be very difficult to develop policy and costings for policy. There are a lot of guesstimates at work. I know if the Minister were to come forward with a proposal on tax tapering, for example, Revenue would give him its best guesstimate on the costs and effects of that. As Members of the Opposition, Revenue will not give us those guesstimates, and I understand why it will not. The Government is going to enact it in legislation whereas we are using it as an alternative, as such.

In today's world, there must be a way to look deeper into joint and separate assessment. With everything we have and all the data we are looking at, in terms of the number of income earners in the State, a certain proportion of that information is false. We are misreading the data, given the fact that 34% are taxpayer units made up of two individuals with two incomes. It is a completely false read of where income distribution is in the State.

It is impossible to develop good tax policy without sight of the details. I take the Minister's point that the Department also wants the data and that it is working with Revenue on that but I would like something more substantial and concrete. For example, I have previously asked for a report to be prepared, looking at the analysis of individual taxpayers. Will the Minister, at least, agree to the Department and Revenue examining how information on the breakdown of income components of jointly assessed and separately assessed taxpayer units could be garnered?