Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste. A key part of that better society is continued low unemployment, continued employment opportunities and the opportunity to derive Exchequer returns from PAYE and people paying tax. One of the key parts around incentivising people into the labour market and addressing the cost of creating jobs is looking at taxation. I would reject any attempt to increase employer's PRSI by any political party in this House. We should look at measures around temporary reductions in PRSI if that were suitable, to support businesses as they try to continue to create jobs to support the Irish economy and people in it. We should also look again at the marginal rates of personal taxation. The OECD said recently that high marginal rates of personal taxation may continue to constrain entrepreneurship as well as attracting entrepreneurial labour from abroad. We have very high personal tax rates and marginal tax rates relative to other jurisdictions. The Family Business Network, whose members employ so many people in this State and who contribute €19 billion to the Exchequer has asked that we look again at marginal tax rates and try to push out the point at which people hit the marginal rate to €50,000.

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