Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

Some of the individuals who were in Dublin Castle advising us on how we can get this country back working again should start by looking into their own souls and paying tax in this country. One can help this country to get back on its feet by paying tax. If these people are not prepared to do that, the Government should consider introducing legislation to alter the existing tax exile legislation.

I will conclude by speaking about the budget. I suggest that the Leader could advise the Minister for Finance to introduce a pension tax to deal with the massive pensions of several hundreds of thousands of euro that are received by some public servants when they retire. Obviously, we cannot do anything retrospectively about payments that have already been made. There are laws dealing with it. There is nothing to stop the Government from introducing a tax on pensions of over €100,000.