Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As always when it comes to individual areas of taxation, they are considered in the lead-up to a budget. We are in a scenario where we have limited resources overall. We have a net tax package of €1.15 billion, as set out in the summer economic statement, and there are lots of different things we would like to do with that envelope. Principal in that would be an income tax package to support workers and pensioners, who pay tax as well, through changes to income tax and USC to ensure there is a fair distribution of the benefit of those reductions for low- and middle-income earners as well as for everybody else on the income scale. There are lots of different priorities but all taxes are considered as we lead up to a budget and before we make any final decisions.

See this speech in context