Vol. 557 No. 1
121 Ms B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Finance when he intends to meet the commitment given in An Agreed Programme for Government to remove all those on the national minimum wage from the tax net; the numbers of persons who earn the national minimum wage or less who are paying income tax; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21288/02]
The Deputy will recall that I answered a similar question from Deputy Brendan Howlin on 25 June 2002. The position is that the statutory minimum wage is an average hourly rate of gross pay for an employee as defined under the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000. The wage currently stands at €6.35 per hour having been increased from the previous amount of €5.97 per hour which applied up to 30 September 2002. The annualised equivalent of the present minimum wage is €12,878.
The document, An Agreed Programme for Government, between Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats states that "over the next five years our priorities will be to achieve a position where all those on the minimum wage are removed from the tax net". The commitment is given in the context of a broader economic and budgetary strategy which provides, among other things, that the public finances will be kept in a healthy condition and that personal and business taxes will be kept down in order to strengthen and maintain the competitive position of the Irish economy.
The Deputy will be aware also of the commitment contained in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness which states: "It is an agreed policy objective that, over time, all those earning the minimum wage will be removed from the tax net".
The question of when all those earning up to an annual amount equivalent to the statutory minimum wage annualised will be not be liable for income tax is a matter for consideration in the context of the Government's budgets over the next five years consistent with the Government's overall economic and budgetary strategy and with the Government's commitments as already outlined.
I understand from the Revenue Commissioners that there are at present an estimated 72,000 tax cases who have income at or below the minimum wage and who are liable for income tax. It should be noted that this figure relates to those whose annual income is less than the minimum wage annualised and would include those who are working less than full-time on an hourly rate that is greater than the minimum wage. The figure differs from the earlier estimated figure of 43,500 supplied in my previous answer to Deputy Howlin in June 2002 because of the fact that the value of the minimum wage increased on 1 October 2002.
Question No. 122 answered with Question No. 73.
Question No. 123 answered with Question No. 76.
