Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

That is the position of the Government. The Government has made that clear. The an bord snip nua report has been under consideration since September by way of bilateral discussions between the Department of Finance and independent Departments and discussions in this regard are ongoing. The Deputy has been previously involved in the Estimates discussions and will be aware they take time. Various options are looked at, alternatives are sought and people who have priorities or other issues to put forward can do so. Ultimately, savings have to be identified and agreed. The process is ongoing. I cannot indicate to the Deputy during the process of those discussions what will be the outcome in this regard, except to say that the Government is determined to bring forward an adjustment that meets the requirements of the situation as we see it and that avoids a situation of drift whereby we increase the level of debt, deficits and the burden of debt on the State, which will increase further taxation levels into the future.

The Government and, the Minister for Finance, has made clear that 95% of our tax revenues come from the four main heads of income tax, VAT, excise and corporation tax. That there is available to us a big range of tax revenues in current circumstances over and above what we are already receiving in view of the fragile nature of the economy is an option that would have to be carefully considered. One would have to be slow to do that in an effort to maintain jobs and competitiveness.

The suggestion has been made that there exists a range of people who can provide sufficient funds to fill the gap. Taking the example of people earning €150,000 upwards one would be required to increase the marginal rate to 67% to raise €1 billion in that area. The impact this would have on the enterprise economy and maintaining jobs would have to be taken into account. We have already seen the marginal rate raised to 52%. Considerable tax impositions have been already introduced in the two budgets introduced in October 2008 and April 2009. It has been recognised that this was the correct action to take in the short term as we sought to investigate every area of expenditure, which was the whole purpose of the exercise undertaken by the McCarthy group. The McCarthy report is now forming the basis of further political discussions.

Deputy Gilmore has stated he does not want details. What he wants to know is what is the outcome of the Estimates process, which is ongoing. I am suggesting that given the scale of the issues to be dealt with, it is not possible to leave aside any area of public expenditure, including public sector pay and pensions and welfare, and to expect that the remaining area of public expenditure will provide the correction that is needed without, in my opinion, greatly undermining the provision of public services to those who need them and saying that those who provide the services, and those in receipt of public support, are not in a position to make some contribution towards the overall effort.

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