Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Government likes to focus on marginal rates of tax, but the key issue for workers, be they low, middle or high-income earners, is the effective rate of tax on an overall basis. If this amendment were combined with our proposal to abolish the USC on income under €90,000, the effective rate of tax paid by even relatively high earners would still be approximately 50% or lower as opposed to the high figures that the Minister has referenced. The amendment is meant to read "65 per cent", so €2.2 billion would be raised by our approach of taxing high-income earners in our society.