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

We have a retail forum through which the Government engages with retailers. It is very much on the agenda of the forum to ensure that prices will not increase too much or by more than is justified, given the input costs.

The Deputy is not entirely correct in what he said about the national minimum wage. Since the national minimum wage was established, it has gone up by more than the cost of living. It has not gone up in line with wages; it has gone up not only in line with the rate of inflation but by well above it. That may not be true for every one of the past 20 years but it is broadly true and will be true this year, which will see an increase of roughly 7% or 7.5%. The inflation rate is expected to be about 5%. Over the course of 20 years, the minimum wage has not only kept up with inflation but has gone ahead of it. While there have been a few years in which there have been exceptions in this regard, what the Deputy said is not generally true. His narrative is incorrect.

The other area we need to consider is tax. Regarding household income, it is a matter of how much you earn, how much you get to keep after tax and how far it goes. The Deputy will have seen the OECD report on taxing wages, which he quoted in his press release yesterday. The report shows that Ireland taxes the average single person at a rate that is about average but that our rate is higher than in Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the USA and Canada. That is why I hope the Deputy will end his opposition to income tax cuts.

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