Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

What is the Minister's view of middle income? He talked about middle-income workers and all the rest. Will he clarify to the House his definition of "middle income"? Does he use CSO data for example, which tells us that the median income in 2023 was €43,221? I am sure people would accept that definition of "middle income". However, as the CSO tells us, that excludes everybody who works fewer than 50 weeks. There are people in all of our constituencies, whether they are the school caretaker or otherwise, who do not work 50 weeks due to the nature of their employment. When all employment is taken into account, the average weekly earning is €699. Therefore, if that were annualised, it would be €36,400. That is the CSO data. It tells us that the average weekly earnings of all workers are €36,400. If we just take workers who work at least 50 weeks per year, then it is €43,221. That excludes a lot of workers as I have said. What is the Minister's definition of "median"?

I am sure he will come to this in different sections, but he will tell us that certain sections of this Bill benefit middle-income workers. They do not. Increasing the standard rate band does not benefit middle-income workers because a middle-income worker is on €36,000. That is the reality. Will the Minister explain the definition he is using? Is it a Fianna Fáil internal definition? Is it one they have created within the Government, or are they using the statistics available to us through the Central Statistics Office of what the average worker earns, which is an annualised figure of €699 per week, which is €36,400 per year?

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