Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

If I may continue, I will give some further examples.

A married couple with two children and one income of €60,000 had an effective rate of tax of 36% in 1997, but following the supplementary budget it is 24%. Again, this couple is going back to levels of taxation that pertained in 2004-05. In a final example, a married couple earning €100,000 in two incomes, with two children, had an effective rate of tax of 42.6% in 1997, but under the measures in the supplementary budget they now have an effective tax rate of 27.9%.

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