Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Could the Minister give more detail on the report that will be presented? I presume the Minister has seen the report, which is being worked on by his Department and the ESRI. We are asking for a net wealth tax. Every year, we have this discussion on local property tax, CGT and CAT. The Minister is reducing the latter two. The local property tax is not a net wealth tax. Let us not rehash the whole debate. If I had a mortgage of €200,000 and my house was worth €100,000, I would still have to pay the property tax. It is the opposite of a net wealth tax. People are paying tax on a debt that they have. It is not an asset but a liability. The question is whether the report will be on a net wealth tax. We have proposed a very particular type of net wealth tax that could be introduced.

The Minister mentioned TASC. We could be here until tonight selectively quoting TASC and what it has said about a property tax. Tom McDonnell, the author of a TASC-NERI, Nevin Economic Research Institute, working paper in 2013, proposed a model of wealth tax. The TASC website states:

The proposed model of wealth tax would only affect those with over €1 million in assets (the top one or two per cent of the population) and would have ceiling provisions to protect people with low incomes. Based on cautious estimates such a tax could raise hundreds of millions annually and would have less damaging impact on society and the economy than many other budget adjustments being considered.

While the Minister can quote TASC on property tax, this is about a net wealth tax. Can the Minister give an indication to the committee how comprehensive the paper will be? Will it address the possibility or the options available for the introduction of a comprehensive asset tax or a net wealth tax such as I have proposed? I have written legislation but cannot table it in the House because of the constitutional prohibition on Opposition Members bringing forward proposals that could incur a cost on the Exchequer or a cost on the population. The legislation is there and can be viewed by anybody. There is also the proposal that has been put forward by Tom McDonnell and TASC in the working paper. Is the paper on a net wealth tax or a wealth tax, as the Minister would define it, that is, CGT or CAT?I do not dispute that they are forms of wealth tax but they are not the type of wealth tax it is proposed to introduce.