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

The Minister's response does not fully take into account that there is a need for a radical reconfiguring of the tax system as a whole in order to redistribute wealth because of obscene inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth.

That is what is driving people onto the streets and making them so angry about the regressive nature of water charges. Regardless of what the Minister says or how he argues the percentages, those who cannot pay their bills and those who are on the minimum wage cannot see the fairness of the decision to give multiples of what they are being given to people who earn more than €70,000. Given that 20% of children in this country are living in poverty - that is one in five - I do not see how any Government that is making decisions about where benefits might be given back, or concessions might be given out, can say that anybody who earns more than €65,000 deserves anything back, if it is a choice between giving money to such people and giving it to people on the breadline or children in poverty. That comment does not arise out of a sort of vindictiveness against people who are earning over €65,000.

I would say that when we sit down to look at scarce resources and decide where relief should be directed, we have to start with the families of the 20% of children who are living in poverty. The first priority of any Minister for Finance in any budget should be to take budgetary measures that put enough income back into the pockets of the parents of those children to lift them out of poverty. Rather than doing that, the Minister is giving €600 or €700 to somebody who is on €65,000, €70,000, €80,000, €90,000 or €100,000. Why does anyone on more than €100,000 need to get anything back? Such people are already on very high incomes. They are not struggling. They will not have difficulty. The Minister might say they are not super-wealthy, and that is okay, but they are not struggling. They are not even on the same planet as a family that does not know whether it will have enough money to feed the kids. I think that is the point being made. It was made by the tens of thousands of people who were out on the streets. There has to be a radical shift towards addressing the despair, intolerable poverty and dire circumstances faced by tens of thousands of families. They cannot understand why any extra burden, such as the water charges, is being imposed on them. They do not understand why the Minister is not using the latitude he has - the relief that is available under the universal social charge or anything else - to help people in this group and help those who are in poverty out of poverty as an absolute first priority.

I was looking at the Credit Suisse global wealth report for 2014, which is a real eye-opener. I honestly suggest that the Minister should have a look at it, if he has not already done so. The report estimates that there are 88,000 millionaires in Ireland. Like the Central Bank, Credit Suisse has shown that over the last two years, the total net assets of households in this country have increased by 13% to €508 billion. Over 20% of this is owned by the top 1% and over 40% of it is owned by the top 5%.

If one examines Credit Suisse's methodology - how it works out these estimates - one will see that it uses a few different models. To a very large extent, it extrapolates its figures on the basis of how income is distributed in each society. It can correlate from that how wealth is accumulated and distributed. Even if this report is not absolutely accurate, it is shocking if it is close to the truth. I do not understand why the Minister cannot hear the voices that are raised in the Dáil or on the streets. I refer to those who are saying we need a redistributive taxation system that prioritises people who are living in poverty. That is really the point. The system should take more tax from the top 5% or 10%, whose income and wealth levels are more than adequate to bear a significantly increased tax burden.