Madam, – Brian Lenihan’s recent speech to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce included the statement that 4 per cent of earners paid 48 per cent of tax (Home News, October 16th).
In the absence of other statistics, that information is almost meaningless. What is the average income of this 4 per cent, for example?
The Minister should now reveal how much income nationally has been sheltered from the payment of tax through the use of the various tax shelters and exemptions that the Minister and his predecessors have enacted over the last 20 years for the virtually exclusive benefit of the wealthy.
Perhaps the Minister might indicate to the PAYE taxpayer base just how much tax receipts would improve were he to remove these obscene tax avoidance schemes.
It is deeply disturbing to hear the Minister requiring ordinary workers in general, and public servants in particular, to carry the burden of the fiscal impropriety his party has brought about, while at the same time failing abysmally to make any effort to bring equity to the issue of tax on incomes.
Sadly, the Minister seems far more content in ensuring that the weight of debt and the consequent fall in living standards will be borne by the little people of this country, while the wealthy continue to enjoy State collusion in their ongoing avoidance of paying a just share of income tax. – Yours, etc
MÍCHEAL Ó BRAOIN,
Droichead Abhann
Uí gCearnaigh,
Co an Chláir.