Dan Boyle (Green Party)

Since we are due to make statements on the budget tomorrow, it will be an opportunity to lay out our stalls and to examine in detail the context of the Budget Statement made by the Minister for Finance in the other House yesterday. I hope that Senators, before they engage in the debate, will learn to be numerate. In recent days, I have heard much about middle income earners. The average industrial wage is €36,000. The average wage in the public sector is €47,000. The tax burden was spread across all categories, but it was most heavily spread among high income earners.