Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

This means that almost two out of every five earners, or 846,000 persons, will be outside the tax net in 2007 compared to one third, or 677,000 persons, in 2004 and one quarter, or 380,000 persons, when we took office in 1997. This is a highly significant development.

See this speech in context