Dr Emma Howard

So we don't need this level of universal supports.

What we need is targeted temporary measures.

And although the government seems to be saying that on the surface and using this message, their actions are not.

So things like those excise cuts are not targeted.

They go to everybody.

But when we look at income tax in Ireland, though, that squeeze middle, that average worker in Ireland actually pays less tax on average than OECD countries.

There we go.

Cliff Taylor has a very good piece.

I mean, our tax system is so complicated, you know, there's a lot of different factors to it, but they do pay less tax.

And so we do have, again, very concentrated income tax here.

So, you know, 20% of income taxes, sorry, 80% of income tax is paid by 20% of workers.

Now, that is...

there's a reason for it.

It's because we do also have a very progressive tax system.

So, you know, if you look at our take-home pay, we're kind of average in terms of equality across Europe.

But if you look at our labour market incomes, we're the most unequal in Europe.

So there are people on really high incomes who are paying a lot of tax, but, you know, that is redistributing wealth.

And, you know, if we're looking at tax cuts in the budget...

Like, do we want to be giving those tax cuts to those high income people at this point when we don't need to be pumping more money?

So you're spending all of those windfall corporation tax receipts, you're now planning to spend five out of every six euro of them, and you're planning to grow spending out to 2030 above the growth rate?