Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Senator Byrne. In government, Fine Gael has shown that we want to allow people to keep more of their money and to put more money back in their pockets. The Minister and the Government have increased the threshold at which people will start paying the higher rate of tax. We have kept pace with the increases in the minimum wage with adjustments to the USC as well. Those measures are important.

With regard to recommendations Nos. 3, 4 and 5, a number of suggestions have been made, including the introduction of a 30% tax rate which the Minister mentioned in his budget speech. Perhaps he can update us on what initiatives he is looking at with regard to that. Recommendation No. 5 concerns the laying before the Houses of a report on the introduction of a 30% tax rate before budget 2024. The other recommendations seek to ensure that the Minister prepares and lays before the Houses reports on the impact of increasing tax credits and on increasing the standard cut-off point to €50,000. We have seen, over successive budgets, the increase in the standard rate band up to €40,000. I ask the Minister to outline his plans to increase that further in the coming years to allow people to keep more of their money. Ireland has a very progressive tax system which compares very favourably in terms of ensuring that those at higher levels pay more. However, at the same time, there are people in the squeezed middle, who work and pay a lot of their income in tax. It is important that we try to alleviate the burden on them. I ask the Minister to outline his plans in respect of the measures mentioned in recommendations Nos. 3, 4 and 5.