Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

We will not need to have this argument in the future if the Minister accepts the principle of the amendments before the House. Index-linking should be accepted as a matter of course. It should be a policy priority when the Minister is compiling next year's budget and any subsequent budgets he might have the joy of bringing to the House. It should not be possible to play around with figures to argue that additional taxation is being paid to the Exchequer solely because of inflationary factors. The Minister should accept this principle to be fair to taxpayers. If he is not prepared to accept it now, I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt by assuming that he will give serious consideration to it when future budgets and finance Bills are brought before the House.

I do not favour the introduction of a minimum tax rate as a means of addressing the problem of the legitimate evasion of tax by people on high incomes. While such a tax rate would ensure that people could not have a 0% liability, it would also mean that most taxpayers who have the income to do so would aim for the new minimum rate at every possible opportunity. The introduction of maximum tax relief, on individual reliefs and as a total of all tax reliefs, would be a better option. The Minister has decided to modify some tax reliefs in this Bill, in advance of the report on such reliefs he will receive later this year. It is a pity he has not adopted the principle I have mentioned.

We need to try to stop widespread tax avoidance. Rules need to be put in place to make it clear to people that if they invest a certain amount of money in certain areas, the benefit they will receive will be strictly limited. They will not be able to avoid the entire tax liability that, as citizens of this country, they should contribute to the Exchequer. This is 2005 — we should not allow people on high incomes to avoid paying any tax in 2006. Having listened to the Minister on Second and Committee Stages, I do not expect him to change his mind. However, I ask him to put down a marker to indicate that he will be favourably disposed to accepting this principle when we address this issue again. We should not have to discuss this matter during debates on future finance Bills.

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