Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy raises some valid points. In respect of our tax base, ten years ago we relied heavily on stamp duty, tax revenues from capital gains tax and tax receipts from the property sector. Now, our tax base is much more broadly based. We have a local property tax which, unpopular as it may be, has broadened our tax base. We also have a sugar tax and a carbon tax and as such we have a much more broadly based system than we had ten years ago. The area of vulnerability is corporation profit tax. In the past couple of years, we have had a windfall in terms of big increases in taxes from big companies. We cannot make long-term spending commitments with this money because we cannot be sure it will available to us in a year or two. While I acknowledge the issue the Deputy raises, it is important to make that the point that we do have a much more broadly based tax system now. If there is a vulnerability, it is not around income tax but corporation profit tax and whether we will be able to take in as much money from corporations in two or three years' time as we do now.

The Deputy also mentioned that there are a lot of people talking about a return to the low taxes we had ten years ago as if ten years ago, pre-crash, was somehow normal. This applies to other areas as well. There are people talking about a return to the pay levels we had ten years ago and to the house prices we had ten years ago, as if ten years ago was normal. If we return to the pay levels, house prices and low taxes we had ten years ago we are heading for another crash. This Government needs to be responsible and to try to contain the increase in house prices, the increase in demands for higher pay and the increase in demands for lower taxes. If people think that what we had in Ireland ten years ago was normal, we are heading for another crash. This Government will be responsible and make sure that does not happen on any of those levels - tax, pay, spending or property prices.

On income tax, I can assure the Deputy that our plan is to raise more from income tax in 2019 than we will in 2018. This is largely due to increasing employment and higher incomes and not due to rising taxes. We do not intend to cut the marginal rate. Our focus is on average incomes. The average person in Ireland working full-time, excluding students, earns approximately €44,000 per annum, some of which is subject to tax at the higher rate. I believe people who earn €40,000 or €50,000 are "the middle". The Deputy may say they are in the top 19% and that they are the rich.

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