Barry Ward

That does not make sense.

And that's not the way the tax system was originally envisaged to work.

The idea was that the marginal rate would be...

targeting people in the top income brackets.

And yes, it targets them, but it also hits them.

My understanding is that the taxation experts have said that's undesirable because the more tax rates you have, the more complicated it is and tax is complicated enough as it is.

The other thing that I understand from that and my own personal view is that the level of income that you would actually pull into the extract from that would not be significant.

And notwithstanding the policies, for example, of some opposition parties who are suggesting these, what they call millionaire taxes, these would affect also lots of families and households across the country who are not earning huge amounts of money.

And it might actually have an unintended consequence.

Let's call it one.

But I do accept it's expensive.

I'm not saying that it's something that can just be done overnight.

It'll depend on the economic projections for next year and it will cost money.

No two ways about it.

No, that's not the... As I say, this has been Fianna Gael policy for the last two cycles.

Certainly, as long as I've been in the Oireachtas, this has been Fianna Gael policy.

It is a worthwhile objective to say that if you're in the middle income, you're a nurse, a teacher, a guard, working hard, you shouldn't be paying the top rate of tax.

That, to me, makes perfect sense.

These are not the super wealthy.

What Simon Harris is talking about is encouraging everybody to get involved in savings.