Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It has been acknowledged that the changes we had to make in the tax system are progressive, in that a greater requirement has been made, rightly, on higher incomes. The Deputy has made a series of assertions claiming the Government has failed to rectify the public finances. We are in the process of rectifying them but it will be done over several years. The country would not be in a position to take the level of adjustment necessary in one year, or indeed two, without imposing far too great a hardship on our people which we would not contemplate. We have the agreement of the social partners on that timeframe.

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