Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I am disappointed at the Minister's response. He is willing to give substantial relief to those with high incomes and states that more work must be done in order to give far less relief to those on low incomes. This strains credibility. I do not understand his argument that this could undermine competitiveness in some way. It would give people more security and would be a positive measure. He also argued that this might confer benefit on people who already had a pension but it would benefit people at the bottom of the pile, those on the standard rate of income tax and if they are single are earning under €32,000 a year. The conferring of benefit on people who are on incomes under that amount and who are making some contribution into a pension scheme could hardly be regarded as some extraordinary worry to the taxpayer.

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