Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I will have to provide the details on the Deputy's first question separately. With regard to his second question, I indicated on the day the pension levy was introduced that we were prepared to listen to proposals, but they would have to be on the basis that the €1.4 billion would still be obtained. Unfortunately, no such proposals were forthcoming. The levy is an imposition, obviously, but one must consider it as part of the full mandatory deductions, including PRSI, income tax, and health or income levies. If we consider this total picture, including the imposition of the pension levy, we will see that an unmarried person on a salary of €20,000 would have total deductions of 11%, while a person on more than €100,000 would have deductions of more than 43%.

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