Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will deal with the two points which have been put to me. On the point Deputy Boyd Barrett put to me in respect of the effective tax rates for people on middle incomes, I have those figures. For a person on €35,000, the effective tax rate is 12.4%. For a person on €45,000, it goes up to 16%. They are the effective tax rate figures for people on those levels of income. Of course what is concealed there is that the marginal tax rate can be very high. As people go up a level of income, and particularly as they cross the standard rate cut-off point, they face a very high marginal rate. That is why the Taoiseach indicated that, if we had the opportunity to put a series of further budgets in place, the standard rate cut-off point would move ahead of the average wage in our economy. I am committed to making that happen. That decision makes sense. It will reward work and deal with the difficulty we have in terms of those on middle incomes facing a very high marginal tax rate.

On the question Deputy Michael McGrath put to me, I will reiterate what I said earlier.

Expenses that are wholly, exclusively and necessarily included for the purposes of work will continue to be claimable under the Taxes Consolidation Act. That is not changing. The Revenue Commissioners informed me that the matter will be reviewed next year and that there will not be any change to how they implement this policy until 1 January 2020.

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