Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-16
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Deputy Coppinger asked a philosophical question. She could have asked it a century ago as to whether there should be a millionaire. Of course, a lot of this trillionaire stuff is on paper. America has its system and Ireland has its system. We have a fairly progressive taxation system in Ireland where the highest paid by a long shot - the top 5% - pay nearly 50% of all income tax. I can check that but it is roughly where we are. We have a very progressive tax system here. I do believe in a progressive tax system. It is arguable that it could be too high at some levels and we do need entrepreneurship, individual innovation and to incentivise people in life as well, but we need a strong collective underpinning that in terms of our social protection system and a lot of State intervention in our society and in our economy. Ireland is not America in that respect. America has a different ethos and always had. There has always been a debate in the United States between big government versus less big government. People are entitled to have that debate in different societies and to vote accordingly. Just as they look askance at some of our practices, we look askance at some of theirs, to put it mildly.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-16