Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I know. The Minister has taken away the 4% completely and by increasing the PRSI by 1% they still have an advantage of 3%. The calculation is simple. They are paying more up to €200,000 or maybe slightly above, but for every €1 after that they have a 3% advantage. So a tribunal lawyer on €1 million per annum will be €24,000 better off next year. While there are not many people on €1 million, there are many people on €300,000, who will be €3,000 better off in take home pay next year than they are this year and that is taking into account everything in the budget.

There are no other downsides that I have not taken into account. For a person on €500,000 - which is the kind of money a number of barristers and propriety directors would be on - the advantage of 3% on the interval between points 2 and 5 is three times €3,000 which works out at €9,000. Such a person would take home €9,000 more in 2011 while a woman on the minimum wage with three children would take home €2,600 less. That cannot be right. It belies the principle of the Minister's budget. He can argue that this category of taxpayer had a very high marginal wage and if times were good and we were in the midst of the Celtic tiger era, we would say that it is a very high marginal wage; he might be able to argue the principle of this, but I draw attention to this in circumstances where everything that moves is being examined to see if a tax can be imposed on it. I note the Minister is shaking his head.

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