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

I appreciate the difficulty Opposition Deputies have in framing amendments that will considered to be in order, the device of looking for a report on a particular topic being the way around it. I do not object to this, but one never knows on this side of the House whether an amendment is being tabled to seek an opportunity to debate a topic or whether its objectively is actually to seek a report. I have no problem with producing reports and we have had a series of them. A report on farming in the agrifood sector led to many tax reforms, while a report on the marine and fishing industries led to many reforms in that area. We had a report on corporation tax in 2014 and on budget day I announced that we would have another report because of the changes that had taken place in the corporation tax code as a result of the OECD's agenda. Mr. Seamus Coffey is in charge of that report.

Many of the issues raised by Deputy Pearse Doherty such as US exemptions, the tax basis and distributions are dealt with in the income tax reform plan published in July this year and there is not a lot we do not know about the USC. We know the rates, the categories and tranches of income to which the rates apply, the yield for each year and the estimated yield up to 2021, all of which information has been published. We know that, post-budget 2017, the top 1% of income earners who are earning over €200,000 will pay 24% of total USC and income tax revenue; the top 6%, those earning over €100,000, will pay 49% of total USC and income tax revenue; the top 26%, those earning over €50,000, will pay 83% of total USC and income tax revenue. There is not an awful lot we could learn from a further report on the USC, but there is validity in what Deputy Joan Burton said about the use to which any tranche of income tax or USC revenue could be put and this issue could be examined.

I agree that there is a need to address the absence of universal pensions and that there are glaring gaps in social provision, although it would not be the Department of Finance that would take the lead role in that regard but the Department of Social Protection, in which Deputy Joan Burton was Minister for five years and which Department has a lot of information on how pension provisions would apply. We can come back to this issue again, but I am not committing to producing a full report. I would, however, welcome a debate on pension provisions and where the resources could be found.

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