David Norris (Independent)

To apply those rates? Yes, possibly, but at least the answer indicated that George Michael was prepared to pay such rates. He was very decent about the issue. There is something obscene about these enormous amounts of money. There is a distortion. This morning we debated the issue concerning widows, for example, and yesterday we heard the Minister for Finance say quite aptly in the Dáil that some of the fees which barristers received over three days amounted to more than a widow received in an entire year. How much more do these people get from investments? They use every loophole to avoid paying their taxes. That is a pity.

When I graduated from Trinity College, I used to have lunch with some friends, one of whom was a red-hot roaring republican. He could not wait to tell us how he fiddled his tax. This man loved Ireland so much that he could not wait to defraud it. There is such a thing as patriotism. It is a pity that people choose to wriggle in every way possible to avoid paying tax and that tax is used by the Minister for Finance and by our colleagues to support people who are less able to support and defend themselves. It is dreadfully mean-minded.