Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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35. To ask the Minister for Finance if he met with colleagues before the recent tax cut announcements were made. [49445/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Government policy is to keep the tax and revenue base broad, while reducing the rate of tax on work and some other activities to achieve specific social and economic objectives, such as full employment, more housing and urban and rural regeneration. This is set out in the Government Programme.

In September last year, at an event organised by IBEC, I indicated that looking beyond Budget 2019, if economic circumstances allow, we would continue to reduce the tax burden on middle-income earners by increasing the standard rate cut-off point over a number of Budgets to a level that is competitive with our neighbouring jurisdictions.

The Government position is that workers start to pay too high a rate of income tax at too low an income level. We cannot hope to remain competitive if someone on a relatively low income and who decides to work a few hours overtime has nearly half that extra money taken in tax. Such a position informed my approach in the last two Budgets where, on each occasion, I increased the level of the standard rate band. The impact is that fewer people on incomes around the national average have any income subject to the 40% rate of income tax than would otherwise have been the case.

Overall, therefore, the policy of widening the standard rate band is not a new one.

As I have stated on many occasions, we plan to continue this progress in the coming years within available resources, to make sure that Ireland remains competitive.