Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will begin by complimenting Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan. Her speech was the best this morning by a country mile.

An incredible number of opinions were expressed this morning as though opinion was fact. While I do not want to spend too much time on that, I will touch on some of them. The redistribution of wealth operates via taxation through the Government. During the worst periods of the recession, the State was collecting €11 billion in income tax while it was redistributing, through the social protection budget, €21 billion. There is not another jurisdiction that gave out almost twice as much as income tax to people who required redistribution.

We never hear anyone talking about that fact. People ignore it. The major readjustment between the recession and now has been in respect of income tax. Some €11 billion was collected at the lowest point in, I believe, 2011. The projected figure for 2017 is €20.5 billion. If people want to know why the working middle, the people who go to work every day and pay high taxes, should be given some benefit of a reduction - and the reductions have been modest - that is why. We have doubled the take in respect of income tax. The sector I represent is the financial services sector. Every day, I meet representatives from companies that we are trying to attract here to employ people. One of the first issues that is raised is the very high rate of tax. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae referred to how quickly-----

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