The Minister for Finance says he will not rule out any tax initiative, any tax increase, or any tax reduction, in the light of the state of the country's finances.
Michael Noonan told the Dáil that he was saying this at a level of principle, and that he had nothing specific in mind.
Asked by Fianna Fáil's Michael McGrath if this included income tax, Mr Noonan declined to specifically rule out changes to income tax, but referred the deputy to the Programme for Government, saying this gave the 'principles' on which the Government would base its tax approach.
The Programme commits the Government to maintaining the current rates of income tax together with bands and credits, and not to increase the top marginal rates of taxes on income.
Later, Deputy McGrath claimed these remarks indicated the Government could be preparing to abandon another plank of its election campaign, accusing the Government of 'peforming U-turns on an almost daily basis'.
Meanwhile, the legislation which gives affect to the Government's jobs initiative has passed all stages in the Dáil. The measures include a 0.6% levy on private pension funds as well as changes to VAT rates. On a vote, the Government side won by 82-37.
Further pension tax moves to be looked at
Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said he will consider putting another tax on some pension funds in December's Budget. He was speaking in the Dáil on the Bill that imposes a 0.6% levy on pension funds.
The Minister rejected a proposal from Fianna Fáil's Seán Fleming to extend this levy to annuities - where a pension has been purchased for a retired worker - and to Approved Retirement Funds, which are investment funds that provide an income to retired people.
The Minister said the income from ARFs was already taxed in the normal way. He said even where no income was taken from an ARF, Revenue taxes those funds as if 5% had been taken as an income, every year. Such income is also subject to the Universal Social Charge and PRSI.
Minister Noonan said if the Fianna Fail argument was that such funds were not taxed sufficiently, he would look again at them, to see if they would bear further tax, in time for the December Budget.
Later, the Minister said that in examining the tax on ARFs, he would look to see if the 5% figure could be increased for next year.
But he reminded Fianna Fáil deputies that their Government had imposed the 5% figure only in January. Prior to that it had been 3%.
Deputy Fleming appealed to the Minister to change the Bill imposing the levy on pension funds to include ARFs today.
He said people like the former Irish Nationwide boss Michael Fingleton, with pension pots of €10m to €20m, would get no sympathy if they had to pay the 0.6% levy.
Later, the Minister announced that the question of raising the tax on ARFs would be dealt with in the context of the December Budget - and that he would look at the larger pension pots, and ensure that more modest ARFs would be protected.
