Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the first instance, I do not have the Malthusian fears regarding overpopulation which the Deputy ascribes to me. Like Deputy Pearse Doherty, I proved this in my own life because I have quite a large family. Deputy Boyd Barrett can rest easy because we do not have a big problem in that regard. His definition of wealth being an income of €100,000 is rather undermined by his claim that the average tax take on that amount is only 36%. Even if one subtracts the 36% from €100,000, it means that the very wealthy people to whom the Deputy refers still have €64,000. That is their net take home pay. Does he propose to take hundreds of millions of euro more from them? If one uses net rather than gross figures, the picture is slightly different.

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