A specific body should be set up to regularly monitor and review all reliefs and tax breaks offered by the State, the Labour Party said.
It made the call yesterday in a submission to the Review of Tax Reliefs and Exemptions for Higher Earners.
The Government, which has set up the review group, has promised to close off loopholes that allow high earners pay no tax. Measures will be taken to do so, it says, in the next budget and in advance of that it has asked for submissions from the public and interested parties on steps that should be taken.
Last year it emerged that 11 millionaires paid no tax in 2001, through the use of various reliefs available. A total of 242 people who earned from €100,000 to €1 million also had a zero tax rate.
Joan Burton, Labour's spokeswoman on finance, said a permanent tax commission should be set up to monitor and review special tax reliefs and incentives regularly. "The Irish tax system has developed a plethora and range of tax breaks, loopholes and special exemptions and arrangements which favour particular classes of person, particularly those who are well-off and those who opt for non-residency status.
This is to the detriment of people in the PAYE sector who, by and large, have little scope for limiting their tax liability beyond what is clearly advertised by the Revenue Commissioners in terms of general reliefs," she said.
"A permanent tax commission would provide a regular and routine opportunity for such tax breaks to be examined and costed, the beneficiaries identified, the additional economic activity generated and the question of for how long they should continue to be assessed on a regular basis.
"For the last seven years, the Minister for Finance has made a point of expanding on an ad-hoc basis a wide range of tax breaks that appear not to have been costed."