Deputy Higgins is worried about what was happening at the Galway Races. I was also at the Dingle races this year to which I believe the Deputy is a frequent visitor.

There would not be as many millionaires there.

There are not, no.

They keep it quiet down there.

The Taoiseach was probably the best paid attendant at those races.

The Deputy has made his case.

I was not, Deputy Higgins's neighbours down there are not doing bad.

Is the Taoiseach referring to Charlie?

Is that not where Deputy Higgins had his fundraising event for the last election, in Dingle?

Of the top 400 earners' cases examined in 2002, 117 had an effective tax rate of less than 30%, 231 had an effective tax rate of between 30% and 44% and 52 had an effective tax rate of 45%. That study, to which Deputy Higgins referred, indicates there is an increase in the effective tax rate of high earners in the year under review, a part of the study to which the Deputy omitted to refer.

I have no responsibility for what a private sector company does. If Deputy Higgins is asking me to give my view, it seems extraordinary that somebody would get a severance package as high as that reported. I presume those figures are correct. I do not know the basis of that package or what the arrangements were. If the Deputy is asking me to share a view with him that the severance package seems an extraordinary large amount of money, I agree with that statement.

Deputy Higgins did not expect that answer.