Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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132. To ask the Minister for Finance the cost of reducing the current Universal Social Charge rates to 1%, 3% and 6% respectively for PAY As You Earn and self-employed earners, while maintaining the current bands and the 8% rate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17415/15]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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170. To ask the Minister for Finance the cost of reducing the current 7% rate of Universal Social Charge by 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17757/15]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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171. To ask the Minister for Finance the current number of income earners who are exempt from paying Universal Social Charge; the level to which the threshold would need to be raised to exempt a total of 400,000 and 500,000 persons respectively from the Universal Social Charge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17758/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 132, 170 and 171 together.

In relation to the first and second questions, I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that they have published a post-Budget 2015 Ready Reckoner on the their statistics website at www.revenue.ie/en/about/statistics/. The Ready Reckoner, accessible at http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/statistics/ready-reckoners.pdf,  provides indicative costings in respect of certain changes to Income Tax and Universal Social Charge (USC) rates in the "Income Tax and Universal Social Charge" section.

While the Ready Reckoner does not show all of the specific costings requested by the Deputy, other changes can be estimated broadly on a pro-rata basis with those displayed in the Ready Reckoner. For example, the Ready Reckoner shows the impact of reducing the lowest USC rate from 1.5% to 0.5% as having an estimated cost of €235 million in a full year. The impact of reducing the rate from 1.5% to 1.0% as suggested by the Deputy is around half of this, approximately €118 million.

These figures are estimates from the Revenue tax forecasting model using latest actual data for the year 2012, adjusted as necessary for income, self-employment and employment trends in the interim. They are estimated by reference to 2015 incomes and are provisional and may be revised.

In relation to the third question, I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the number of income earners currently exempt from paying the Universal Social Charge is estimated to be in the order of 648,700, already in excess of the numbers noted by the Deputy.