Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

-----7% on the pension contribution the Government asked of them and now a further 5%. The Minister should top up those figures because it means he is asking someone on €21,000 to pay a 43% marginal tax rate. Riddle me that and I will give you a pipe, as my mother used to say. How did the Minister come up with that? How does all the wisdom that is assembled on that side of the House come up with the notion that the highest paid people in the country, as far as their tax is concerned, will be paying virtually the same marginal tax rate as those people at the very lowest level? How did they come up with that wheeze?

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