The IMF has said our tax system is hurting the middle class.

It claims the income tax structure is creating welfare traps and putting off highly skilled foreign workers from coming here.

The international fiscal body has provided its analysis as part of its ongoing monitoring of Ireland post-bailout and has issued a warning about our so-called ‘squeezed middle’.

Dr Niamh Hourigan, a sociologist based out of University College Cork, said that our tax laws are also adversely affecting women in the workplace.

“If you have the male partner earning somewhere above €40,000 and a female partner who then enters the workforce, can then only earn I think it is €24-25,000 before they enter this higher tax band,” she said.

“And of course what it essentially does for many women coupled with the cost of childcare it means it is effectively not worth their while to go out and work.”