Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 184: To ask the Minister for Finance if the Government is committed to keeping those on the national minimum wage out of the tax net; the number of persons on the national minimum wage who have been brought back into the tax net as result of the increase to €7.65 per hour which came into operation on 1 May 2005; if he intends to take steps to take low earners from the tax net; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33070/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, it is not the practice for the Minister for Finance to announce the income tax or other changes he intends to make in forthcoming budgets. However, I might remind the Deputy that it was this Government that introduced the minimum wage to protect low paid workers and it was this Government which over the last eight budgets removed a record number of about 465,000 workers from the tax net entirely. In addition, I point out that we now have one of the highest minimum wages in the European Union, second only to Luxembourg. Since its introduction in April 2000, the minimum wage has increased by almost 37% taking account of the latest increase, well ahead of inflation.

As regards the statistics sought by the Deputy, the present entry point to income tax is €14,250 per annum for a single person aged under 65. The latest provisional estimate from the Revenue Commissioners is that there will be roughly 33,000 income earners in an income range which would bring them into the tax net if their annual earnings reflected fully the increase in the national minimum wage. However, this group will of necessity include part-time workers earning more than the minimum hourly wage, and certain pensioners whose earnings are in the equivalent range. The 33,000 should therefore be seen as the upper band for any estimate of the number who may ultimately come into the tax net on a full year basis as a result of the minimum wage increase.