The fundamental point I want to make is that it appears that the progress made in recent years will, in effect, be wiped out in 2003. More than one third of taxpayers will be paying the top rate of tax by the end of the year. The net fallout from this will be that the Government will have saved almost €600 million by not indexing tax bands to wage increases in 2003. Taxpayers will fork out €600 million this year as a result of the Government's decision not to introduce indexation.