Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have no objection to the Deputy and his party bringing forward proposals for taxes. In so far as the Department of Finance can cost them for the Deputy, it will do so. However, I pointed out in my initial reply that there is no database of the wealth of the nation within any State agency, including the Revenue Commissioners. It is very difficult to construct a tax if one does not know the base to which it applies. The positions the Deputy has taken up are exaggerated because the distribution of wealth in Ireland is fairer than in most countries across Europe. The CSO's research proves that. It also shows that the position now is more fair than it was in 2006 when the first data became available.

It is not deteriorating. The Deputy makes the comparison with 2011. The reason the situation is different from 2011 is that the policies pursued by the Government have caused a recovery in the economy and the recovery is happening rapidly. Part of that recovery is a growth in asset prices. As the Deputy says, people on the top incomes tend to have more assets than people on low incomes. As a consequence, their wealth increases because the value of their assets increases. That is not a deliberate action of the Government; it is a consequence of the success of the Government in getting the economy out of hock and getting it to grow at rates of 6.2% in net terms in 2015. The Deputy is right to say that 20% of the top earners have 40% of the wealth, but the same 20% pay 80% of all the taxes. Any analysis of Irish society shows that it has one of the fairest tax systems in the OECD. Many of the rhetorical points the Deputy makes are exaggerated. That is not to say that his party is not fully within its rights to propose a wealth tax to the electorate, but it needs to make sure that it knows the asset base on which it is applying the wealth tax, especially if it is omitting family homes, as 48% of all wealth is in the value of family homes.