Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to labour the point, but while I welcome the fact that the Minister acknowledges median income in 2023 was €43,000, he should acknowledge that the CSO does that for comparable data purposes. I can read to him the email the CSO provided to me. That is only for workers who are employed for 50 weeks or more in the year. It excludes all workers who left their job during the year. It also excludes seasonal workers and it probably excludes the people who clean the schools in his constituency. It excludes a lot of care workers, including in childcare facilities.

The CSO gives us the median data for all workers in the Irish economy. That number is €699 per week. If we want to look at an annual figure, it would be about €34,000. None of them benefit from the measure the Minister just mentioned regarding the increase in the standard fund threshold. None of them are at the standard rate band, which was the major and most expensive income tax measure introduced in the budget.

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