Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am outlining the specific reason for introducing the levy, the full position for those on low incomes, what the relative position was for them and why we have been making so much progress and, I am proud to say, taking the low paid out of the tax net. With the extraordinary circumstances that now exist, it is true that a 1% levy is being introduced, but it is one twenty-sixth of the burden that the Members opposite believed to be appropriate when they were in charge of the income tax system.

See this speech in context