Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We always hear the mantra that if we tax very wealthy people over 50%, the incentive is removed. Does the Minister accept that the same principle must apply, even more so, when we means test over 50%? When we means test at 100%, which has been the tradition in the Department, we remove all incentive. We recognise this in other schemes where we means test at 50%. Does the Minister accept that, across the board, means testing at 100% or 70% flies in the face of what economists always tells us applies to taxpayers, that if one takes more than 50% of people's earnings away from them, they lose incentive?

See this speech in context