Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

Regarding proposals for an extension of the tax base, the old prayer we heard from the Government was that it would let the Commission on Taxation come up with proposals and that then it would be moved to act on the super-rich. Where are the proposals from the Government which knows the people concerned very well? It knows the people who approached the former Minister, Charlie McCreevy, when he was preparing his five budgets that were driven by property related tax incentives. It knows the people whom he met before he went to Brussels and left with his final valedictory statement to his friends, "party on." It knows where to go for the money. Why does it not go to that source for it instead of attacking the middle and the lower paid?

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