asked the Minister for Finance if he will state the number of persons in the State whose incomes exceed (a) £1,000, (b) £1,500, (c) £2,000, (d) £2,500 and (e) £3,000 per annum, and the total income of such persons.

Statistics are not available of the number of persons in the State whose incomes exceed £1,000. Individuals with incomes in excess of £1,500 per annum are chargeable to surtax and the statistics available in relation to surtax indicate that for the year of assessment 1955-56, the latest year for which such statistics are available, the number of individuals with incomes in excess of £1,500 was 9,400. The distribution of these individuals over income groups corresponding to those specified in the Deputy's question was as follows:—

For surtax purposes, incomes in the range £2,000 to £3,000 are chargeable at a specified rate and statistics are therefore not available to indicate the distribution of surtax payers in the income groups £2,000 to £2,500 and £2,500 to £3,000.

The total income of these 9,400 individuals for 1955-56 was approximately £28,000,000.