Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)

In 2004, it was forecast that there would be an increase of €25 million in capital taxes but the actual increase was €1 billion. How far off target will the Minister's estimates for 2006 be? Will he revise them at this stage? This additional tax take is coming from families and businesses which are obviously paying more tax than they need to for this country to survive. The average tax take from a family has increased from €28,000 in 2002 to a projected figure of €37,500 for 2006. Given these overruns, it is obvious the Minister should be doing a better job and putting more tax back into the pockets of families.

See this speech in context