Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy has strongly backed the low tax policies of the Coalition, insisting they have paid huge dividends for the economy.
Mr McCreevy was speaking to senior executives in the pharmaceutical industry.
He said the low tax approach had been strongly supported by the Irish people on the evidence of the last general election.
A recent poll had shown that only 9% of those surveyed favoured increasing our taxes, he said.
The Finance Minister maintained the policies meant that over 50,000 people who hadn't been working last year had jobs now.
The taxes they were paying gave him the resources to invest in the public services his ministerial colleagues needed.
