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

I cannot get into the details of a budget that will not occur until next October because I am only thinking about initial concepts for it. It is not fruitful to have some kind of detailed debate here. What I was pointing out was that any tax changes that will take place in any budget I introduce will be driven by considerations of growing the economy and employment. I also pointed out that there were tax reductions in each of the past three budgets but, of course, they had to be paid for by increasing taxes elsewhere. For example, two months after coming into Government, I took the VAT on the hospitality industry from 13.5% down to 9%. That was done to restore the tourist industry and create jobs but, of course, we had to raise taxes elsewhere to pay for it. It was still a successful initiative. In this year's budget, I abolished the travel tax and immediately got a response from Ryanair which said it would bring 1 million extra tourists into the country. In our first Finance Bill, we reduced the stamp duty on farmland so that as we go into the quota-free days post 2015, the potential is there to transfer land cheaply to the next generation of farmers. I will follow the same course here. I am pointing out that the portion of the income tax code that is most adverse to job creation is the fact that one goes on to the higher rate of tax at €32,800. I am saying that if there are resources, that is the first piece I would like to do in alleviating the burden of income tax but it is only the initial phase of a debate that will keep running until next October.

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