Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have two questions. The Minister talks about his tax package. I will answer the question he put to me. I would introduce a tax package that is fair. If I get the opportunity to sit where he is, as Minister for Finance, I will abolish the USC for average workers across the State. I will ensure that average workers never pay a tax introduced at that time by Fianna Fáil. I will ensure every worker benefits from that because the first €45,000 will be exempt from USC. That is what I will do, and I will make sure it is done within the first two years of government. That is the answer to the Minister's question and that would be fair because everybody would benefit, particularly those on low and middle incomes. He said his tax proposals are progressive, so somebody on €30,000 benefits to the tune of €59 while somebody on €75,000 benefits by €459. Is it progressive that somebody with less than half the wages of somebody else gets eight times less of a tax cut? That is not my definition of "progressive". It is interesting that he says he is using the mean. The Minister knows, because he is an intelligent person, that median means half of all workers are on one side and half are on the other side and the median income is way less than the mean.

Why is that? It is because there is a serious issue with wealth and equality in this State. The Minister creates the impression that the average worker is earning €50,000 and it is not true. He has taken the wages of all employees in the State, including those who make a lot of money, and divided by the number of employees. That is the mean. The median is a better indicator of where the population is. Half of the population of workers earn less than €36,400 and half of them earn more than €36,400 if we take all types of employment. If we take only those who are working 50 weeks or more, half of all workers earn less than €43,200 and half of all workers earn more than that. That is what middle income means. The point is that half of workers are excluded from the Government's major tax package introduced in the budget. That is fact. It introduced something that is blatantly unfair to people who are seriously struggling. That is just a fact.

Does the Minister not accept that median is the calculation that should be used to find the middle figure, where we are in terms of the population of workers? How many earn more than this number and how many earn less than this number? The median calculation is what the Minister should use. Otherwise he is just trying to create an impression. Half of the country does not earn this money. Half the country earns less than €36,000, which is what the CSO tells us according to 2023 figures. It may have increased a bit in 2024, but it is not anywhere near the Minister's €50,000 figure. If he really believes that, he does not have a sense of where people are really at.

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