Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Committee on Budgetary Oversight
Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed)
2:00 am
Mr. Ciarán Nugent:
Yes, but it is also income as well. We are a trade union think tank, so wages comprise a lot of the stuff we do. There is a lot mixed into income with the household income. As I said, there might be three workers' salaries but, then again, as Leo Varadkar said a couple of years ago, one man's rent is another person's income. The rentier economy is also pushing up disposable incomes and the average, which is what we rely on, obscures all that and the distribution.