Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 65 is in my name. When I raise this issue every year, I am told that the data are not available and that it is hoped they will be available the following year or at some future point. It is important to recognise that the Department of Finance and the Economic and Social Research Institute have worked on the CSO data and are apparently going to make a presentation in this regard at a tax policy conference later this month. Will that actually be the case? Will the work of the Department and the ESRI on the location of wealth in the State be presented to the tax policy conference? The model I am proposing differs from that proposed by Deputy Murphy. We have rehearsed these issues in the House previously. Legislation has been drafted and an explanatory guide has been produced to show what a net wealth asset tax might possibly look like. The model we are advocating is based on the French model, which excludes the likes of businesses and family farms, etc. There are other exemptions as well.

I have proposed amendment No. 65 because we need a report so we can start looking at whether this is possible. Some data have been collected and are to be presented. Work has been done by the Department and the ESRI. We need to look at the options now, regardless of whether we decide to execute them at a later stage. We need to examine whether it is possible to introduce a net wealth tax of the type that is in place in other countries. This type of taxation has been proposed by Members of this House, certain trade unions and other think tanks.

It is being proposed by certain trade unions and other think tanks. Each proposal is very different and contains different types of exemptions and rates, and it is not right to group them together. There is a need, at a departmental level, to examine options and the possibilities, whether it is possible, in the Department's view, and what it would look like, if it were to take place. We talk about the new reform that is yet to take place, given that the budgetary committee has not had the chance to get its teeth into the process. If it is to be serious and genuine, these are the issues we need to explore. We need to have debates based on clear facts, not based on my assumption interpreting CSO data as to what I think could possibly accrue. Our debates must be based on the economists in the Department of Finance working with the data that exists and publishing it so it can be tested robustly by others in the sector. Then, we can make a call on whether it is possible and whether the data can be collected.

My amendment refers to six months to examine a report and the options available for the introduction of a comprehensive asset tax, otherwise known as a wealth tax. I have sought that the report should include options for the collation of data necessary for the assessment of such a tax, the definitions of categories of wealth to be included in such a tax, proposals for the assessment and collection of the tax proposed, and estimates of potential revenue at various taxation rates. This is not alien to us. Ireland used to have a wealth tax. We got rid of it. It was costing us nearly as much to collect the tax as we were bringing in. This was before we had online systems and the Internet, when everything was done by pen and paper. It was possible and definitely desirable that we follow this direction. All we are asking is that the Department's resources be deployed to follow on from the work it has done with the ESRI, which follows on from the work the CSO has done regarding identifying the location or concentration of wealth in Irish society.