Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for Finance took an overall view of the schemes on the Statute Book and has eliminated a large proportion of those, effective from 1 January. It is the greatest overhaul of the tax relief schemes since the early 1960s. Because of all the measures introduced to prevent tax avoidance, in 2002 the top 1% of earners paid 18.6% of all income tax and this year it is expected that those earners will pay more than 20% of all income tax. Because of the changes in the law and the anti-avoidance measures the Government has brought in——

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