Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Minister has gone a long way towards making a deduction of 100%.

I do not oppose his amendment. In our pre-budget submission the Fianna Fáil Party proposed deductions to kick in at a lower level for those earning €75,000. However, we will deal with the budget the Minister presented rather than what we suggested three weeks ago. From that point of view I will not oppose the measure.

The essence of the Minister's proposal is that if a person has a pension of more than €100,000, 70% of that excess will be clawed back directly to the Exchequer, leaving 30% for the person. That was what I wished to check.

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