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

I will be brief. I do not want to labour this point because we fundamentally disagree on it. The Minister has not addressed the question I put to him about wealth inequality. Does he see it as a problem? He will be aware that many people - including Thomas Piketty most famously, and David McWilliams more recently in this country - have argued that growing wealth inequality is a problem. Obviously, we have been making that point for a long time. It is a problem at the social justice level and it is becoming a macroeconomic problem because too few people control too much money. It is estimated that the personal wealth of the richest man in Ireland has increased from €2 billion in 2006 to €6 billion this year. At a time when the rest of the country has been getting poorer, his personal wealth has trebled. Does the Minister agree that such a level of concentration of wealth, which is echoed around the world, is a problem? I am asking a straight question. I am one of many people who see it as a problem. I suggest that the only way for the Minister to address this problem is to introduce radical redistributive tax measures which are Robin Hood in nature, to put it in simple terms. I do not say this to encourage a vendetta against middle class people or anything like that. I say it in the context of the recognition that there is a level of inequality that cannot be justified because it is dangerous for society and the economy. Does the Minister have any sympathy with that view, which is a growing one? To my mind, it is obvious.

For the record, we have said that taxes should not be imposed on the family home. As the Minister knows, we have said that wealth taxes, including taxes on property, should apply to all other assets excluding the family home over a certain threshold of wealth. I ask him to believe me when I say that someone who owns multiple properties or who owns a mansion would pay a hell of a lot more under our proposals. We do not agree with a property tax that hits the family home and fails to take account of the income which may be coming into that home. The Minister is very familiar with this argument, so it is a bit disingenuous of him to misrepresent it. In my constituency, there are many cases of people who happen to live in properties that are valuable because property prices are high in their local areas. The Minister knows that many people live in houses with values that bear no relation whatsoever to the incomes coming into those houses. Many pensioners on very small pensions - sometimes the State pension - are being taxed excessively on the basis of the value of their houses. That is the injustice that led us to oppose the Minister's property tax and to propose a different type of wealth tax. I ask the Minister to be honest when he is characterising the position we have put. The Minister could double, treble or quadruple the second home tax and it would be okay with me because it would get at multiple property owners. We would not be talking about someone's primary residence. I emphasise that a tax on somebody's primary residence that does not take account of income is just not fair.