Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Paul Murphy's question is a fair one. The Government has given a commitment in this space and that needs to be followed through now. I will try to get the detail from the Minister for the Deputy. It is a fair question and many people are waiting for that detail.

On the question on the 30% tax rate, this will be a topic of debate in the build-up to this year's budget. As the Deputy knows, in last year's budget there was a big focus on widening tax bands to try to give middle-income earners a break. These are the people who are paying for everything through their taxes and finding it difficult to meet their bills because of cost-of-living increases. The Government thinks we should continue that trajectory and give people more of their income to take home at the end of each week. Whether we do that through a more radical system with a 30% tax rate or a more managed approach of widening tax bands remains to be seen. We want to ultimately move towards the target that Fine Gael has set of allowing people to earn €50,000 per year before they move into the top rate of tax, which I strongly agree with. Having looked at international examples, Ireland is an outlier in respect of the number of people who pay at the highest rate of tax. This is something that will be debated in the coming months.

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