asked the Minister for Finance the number of PAYE taxpayers earning less than £16 per week.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - PAYE.
50.
Statistics relating to income taxation are not compiled in such a manner as would enable the information requested by the Deputy to be given.
Why not?
Surely this is a ridiculous reply? Surely we should be told, so that we would be in a position to make up our minds on how to vote on the next budget, how many taxpayers have an income of under £16 per week? Surely this is a fundamental statistic that we should have?
The transfer of the income tax records to the computer system will, it is anticipated, be completed by the end of 1971 and this will enable this information to be segregated. I suggest that if the Deputy puts down a question late in 1972 we should be able to advance the information.
Does that mean that the information was not available for past years?
That is right.
I do not believe it.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary say how, if the information was not available in past years, figures of this kind exist in a table attached to a paper by an official of the Revenue Commissioners in the seventh report of the Income Tax Commission giving a full breakdown for incomes for 1954?
Question No. 51.
Can Deputy FitzGerald not get a reply to his question?
There is no answer. The Deputy is making a statement.
The Parliamentary Secretary made a statement that the information was not available for any past year and that was a mis-statement which misled the House and I would like him to apologise for it.
It is not a mis-statement.
I said I did not believe it and now Deputy FitzGerald has borne me out.