Mr. Ian Talbot:

We are fighting with each other as to who should answer this first. It is a very good question. From my perspective it is very hard to look at the income tax structure and conclude that you are paying a lot of tax based on take-home pay versus gross pay. There are so many other costs in the economy, some of which are cheaper in Ireland and some of which are more expensive. For example, I take public transport into town every day. I know it is not an option for a lot of people but the €2 fare since Covid is great. I nearly feel guilty about getting on the Luas for the last bit of the journey. That is the sort of thing we need to take into account. Luxembourg has reduced public transport costs to zero. An important part of the equation is what other costs people need to incur to live their life to an acceptable standard. That encompasses things like the cost of entertainment and everything else. You cannot look at it in isolation of just the tax someone pays without, for example, bringing in whether they are paying local property tax, if they are a renter or a purchaser, or if their interest rate is going up. It is really complicated.

The big thing for us in all our submissions is quality of life and the vibrancy of cities, towns and rural environments to make Ireland somewhere people want to stay. They are not talking about the bottom line of what tax they pay, which is perhaps an invalid comparison. It finally brings us back to the cost of housing. Whether someone is having to buy or rent, the cost of housing effectively looks like a very significant increase in tax. That is a huge concern for young people. Incidentally, young Irish people have always wanted to emigrate for a couple of years. We need to let them do that and then we need to bring them back with that extra experience. Everything at the moment is kind of circling back to the housing crisis. We need affordable housing. Otherwise, it does not matter what rate of tax people pay because they cannot afford the quality of life they deserve in this country.