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

It is reasonable to adopt different positions based on one's perspective. I am sure that we will hold many discussions on tax over the next two years or so. Many part-time workers are not in the tax net. Some 850,000 workers do not pay income tax because they are not liable for it. Many of those are part-time rather than low-paid workers. This is one starting position.

The benefit of this reform would be for persons earning incomes in excess of €32,800. However, it is becoming an issue. As the economy grows and people are needed to work in its emerging vacancies, we must attract back some of the young emigrants and those who commute to the UK. If someone can fly out of Dublin on a Monday morning to a job in London, stay for five days and enjoy a much higher salary in a more benign tax system, it will be difficult to bring skilled workers back. This is the connection with job creation. In the UK, one does not go on the higher income tax rate until one is earning somewhere north of £180,000. We are at €32,800.

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