Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Other countries do that. The Deputy may wish to include those goods and redistribute the money in another manner, but our way is more effective.

To answer Deputy Rabbitte's question, I believe that reductions from now on should be at the lower end. There is no case for reductions at the top end. Obviously, the bands and allowances must be kept in line, as the Minister achieved in the last budget. The reductions should help people who are working hard and are on incomes that are no longer low but which are relatively low compared with those of others. All the programmes introduced over the last few years have successfully targeted tax reductions at those receiving low pay. This has worked very successfully.

The proportion of taxes of those on the average industrial wage, which is approximately €32,000, has fallen dramatically from approximately 14% eight years ago to approximately 6%. This represents a considerable achievement in bringing about equity in the tax system, which means that the burden is now being shifted from those on the average industrial wage and the amount reduced considerably. This is a considerable rebalancing of the tax system. We should continue to put resources into this area rather than that relating to high earners.

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