Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to highlight one tax change. One of the messages that has been lost in the budget is that we are competing internationally for highly skilled people, especially in the health sector. We have great difficulty retaining people in this sector and, therefore, the tax changes in the budget are welcome. Many qualified medical professionals are emigrating to Canada, the US, New Zealand, Australia and the UK because while they earn less money, they pay much less tax in those jurisdictions. If we want them to return, we must ensure salaries and the tax structure is attractive to them. There are more than 250 vacant consultant posts in our hospitals, which equates to more than 10% of posts. We must examine this in the long term because these people are needed to provide the health care system the population needs. Expertise is required and, therefore, we need these people to return. The budget is the first step to encourage them to return. I welcome the Minster for Finance's decision to introduce these changes to the tax system.

This is just the first of many steps that will have to be taken to make it more attractive for people such as these to come back and work in this country.