Ring denies Govt u-turn on taxes

The Junior Minister for Tourism and Sport Michael Ring is denying that the Government is rowing back on commitments.

Mr Ring's comments come after the Finance Minister Michael Noonan told the Dáil this morning that he will not be ruling out any tax increases in the Budget.

The Fine Gael/Labour coalition had promised to maintain the current income tax rates as part of the new Programme for Government agreed in March.

Minister Ring said any tax decisions to be made will depend on the state of the public finances towards the end of the year.

Michael Noonan said: "Given the scale of the economic challenges facing the country I cannot rule out any tax initiative."

He said if the jobs initiative was to be continued past 2014, some taxation would have to pay for it.