Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tapering out tax credits does not increase the marginal rates. They will remain the same. The impact would be on the effective rate. I mentioned to the Minister that this, combined with the other measure, would bring the effective rate below where it was in 2014. Tapering out the tax credits, therefore, would not impact on the marginal rate of taxation, which brings in €232 million.

I asked the Minister where he is going to get the revenue from, and he outlined that it will come from the 97% of the population who earn below €100,000 in individual income. Regardless of income, people will be liable to pay the local property tax, LPT. Similarly, regardless of how poor people may be - they may not even be in employment - they must pay the carbon tax if they are filling their car with petrol or diesel or trying to keep their homes and children warm. The Minister is saying that he is willing to get the revenue for all these proposed initiatives from that 97% of the population. He does not even want us to talk to him about looking at the 3% of people who have individual incomes of more than €100,000.

They are going to be protected by this Minister, just as he brings in measures to protect the really wealthy in Irish society. Measures such as the special assignee relief programme, SARP, allow individuals coming into the State to write off €111,000 of their tax liabilities. Nobody else can get that relief. It is not possible for a butcher, a painter, a decorator or a hairdresser to get that rate. The Minister, however, brings in measures, such as SARP, that are only available to the wealthiest in society. It applies to people earning up to €1 million, and includes the ability to write off private tuition fees for children and to fly home to one's parent country once a year. Those are the types of favours or policy measures that are brought in to support those at the higher end of incomes. By God, though, local property taxes and carbon taxes will come from those on the lower incomes and flow to this Government.

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