Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Every survey carried out by the OECD, the EU and all independent analyses show that this is the position. After the last budget, the average tax rate for a person on the average industrial wage will be 11% lower than it was in 1997. It comes to less than 17%, compared with less than 28% in 1997.

The Deputy makes a point about the number of people who drift back into the higher rate of tax. He made use of figures given in a question last week which I will not dispute. It is the Government's policy to try to move as many as possible of those paying taxes, excluding the 34% I mentioned, onto the lower rate. Last year and the year before, we did not change much in respect of tax bands because of our actions in respect of lower pay. While that exacerbated the situation, this is an issue to which, as the Minister said, we will return.

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