Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It acknowledged the progressive nature of social policy in the past five or six budgets. It makes this point clearly and the statistics bear this out. For example, it notes that for people earning the average industrial wage, the effective tax rate has fallen from approximately 27% or 28% to 15%. Nowhere else in the organised world has been able to achieve this. Moreover, it points to other areas where policy developments should result in a fairer society. To answer the Deputy's question, these issues are studied carefully and are taken into account.

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