Mr. Neil McDonnell:

The point I am trying to make is that employee and employer rates in Ireland are significantly lower than they are on the Continent with which we are making these comparisons about higher benefit. I absolutely agree with the Senator that our employer rate of 11% is low, but we have traditionally enjoyed far lower rates of unemployment as a result of that. However, the real outlier is that of employee PRSI at 4% which does not even start until someone is on €18,000. Our employee taxes, especially for workers below the average industrial wage, are extraordinarily low by comparison with the Continent. That is just a fiscal fact.