Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This is a hypothetical "I".

Let us say somebody earns €70,000 per year, but only €35,000 or €40,000 is assessable. A sum of €30,000 is taken out of the equation because it is not assessable. That would be wonderful. Many families here would be delighted with that, but that is not what happens. Why does it happen in the corporate sector? No doubt, the Minister will say it is because it is making all sorts of investments and so forth. However, according to the CSO figures the Minister mentions, approximately 600 firms account for the vast bulk of the profits. I worked out that the ones that earn over €10 million in profits per year, and they account for almost three-quarters of all the gross profits per year, make an average of €103 million in profit each year. That is a great deal of money. When one compares the gross figure and how much they actually pay, it is approximately 6.3%. I believe they can afford to pay a little more. Why not impose a minimum effective rate on them so they pay a little more, given that everybody else is being screwed to the wall?