Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 16:

In page 12, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following:"14. The Minister shall, within one month of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on options on introducing a third rate of tax payable at 47 per cent on income over €100,000.".

This amendment fits into the general thrust of Sinn Féin's amendments, in that we seek a more progressive tax incidence. Some of Revenue's recent figures about the uneven distribution of income in the State were startling. According to Revenue, the total income of those liable to income tax was €77 billion in 2011. Revenue projects that this figure will increase to €98 billion in 2016. The analysis gives a breakdown of where that €21 billion increase will find a home. Some €12 billion, more than 50% of that new income, will go to the top 10% of earners, while €14 billion, more than 66%, will go to the top 14% of earners. We are seeing a society develop in which the new income generated therein will lean heavily towards a small section of that society.

Income gaps have yawned in recent years. We are not referring to the normal rich and poor in society any more, or to what happened in the 1970s and 1980s in that regard. Rather, the incomes of the top 20% have increased significantly. The Minister mentioned that the top 20% of earners were paying two thirds of all income tax, but the top 10% earn 33% of all income. It might feel like the top earners are being taxed sizably, but they are consuming a sizable portion of the income as well.

The question is how to have an income tax rate that allows people to work harder and take home more money while contributing more. It puts a brake on the growth of the income chasm between rich and poor. How can this be done in a way that does not penalise people who are even on middle incomes? We suggest that, on every €1 over €100,000, 7 cent extra will go into the State's coffers. This would have the effect of creating a somewhat more equal society, putting a brake on the growing disparity in incomes and bringing hundreds of million of euro into the State's coffers to address the life-and-death issues being experienced by those in the lowest third of the population's earners.