Ms Cora O'Brien:

I will try to step back a little from that. The starting point with identifying the right tax policy is how much expenditure do we need to raise as a society for the types of things we need to pay for? That is the first question. The second question is, given that amount of expenditure and the type of small open economy we have, because that is what we have to work with, how will we devise our tax policy to get the most tax to fund all the services? When we in the institute say that capital taxes and marginal tax rates are high, it is not because we wish to take from somebody and give to somebody else or that we think a tax cut is more important than hospital trolleys.

It is not about that. It is about trying to raise the most tax. We believe the best way to raise the most tax is by having the most appropriate tax policy for this type of country. In our view, the way we will generate more tax to pay for more services is by examining our personal tax regime, which is impeding our talent. By all means we would welcome a piece of work on marginal tax rates-----