Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know that. I know a good bit about the health sector and my point is that nothing happens unless people are prepared to give an inch.

I can tell Senator Conway-Walsh that a choice was to be made in relation to the bed spaces. The Senator cited Dublin and price gouging. I will not pretend to be pleased with the prices of hotel rooms in Dublin. The Senator, however, is the very person to beat the drum that there is more to Ireland than Dublin. We cannot change one aspect of the pricing for beds because of what is happening in County Dublin. It would be a mistake to do so.

The Senator said that some people can afford to give a little more and touched on the 3% which she considered to be the "protected species". That was the term she used. The top 1% of taxpayers in the country pay 25% of all income tax. The top 3% pay approximately 40%. It is plus or minus a couple of percentage points. I believe passionately that the more one earns the more one should pay. The OECD's analysis is that the Irish income tax system is the most progressive within the OECD. I agree with that. However, if we put another 7% on top of the 54%, which is 61%, that would cost us jobs.

I am out and about trying to get financial services jobs into Ireland. Every single high paid job brought into Ireland brings in nine jobs under it, which bring in another multiplier downwards. The Senator can go after those people, demonise them and call them a protected species if she wishes, but she is wrong to do so. It is a mistake. We have to get people in. If we get them in at a particular level, jobs will flow from underneath them and another lot of jobs will flow from underneath those.