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

I thank the Minister and his team. It has become a bit of a staple of the new Government, including the Minister, to have a go at the left, with various adjectives attached to it, including "extreme", "far" and "hard". I note the Minister recently talked about people resisting change and saying we do not want change. It is an interesting development in the political narrative of the Government and it is a sort of deflecting tactic. It is about having a go at the others and calling them names so we do not examine in detail what the Government is doing.

I will put the record straight. The left is talking about change and we want such change. The very particular change we want is to address what we think are big elephants in the room in terms of the available resources to fund what our society needs, particularly at this time. They are housing, health care, vital infrastructure and so on. I put it to the Minister that the €500 million, or if he pulls a rabbit from the hat with a few other tens of millions of euro nearer the budget, does not go anywhere near what is necessary to invest to the degree we need to in the likes of social housing, primary care and our education system to reduce student-staff ratios.

There is a whole range of areas but I will not list them. Broadband and sustainable energy projects are examples.

Notwithstanding the ding-dong of political name-calling and all the rest of it, what does the Minister have to say about the central question the left raises about wealth and profits and the need to look at these areas to tap extra revenues for things such as housing and health? The big hidden story of recent years is that while incomes have been kept low for most people or cut and not really restored, public expenditure has been kept on a very tight rein and profits and wealth have gone through the roof. It is not just me saying it. We got a report from the Department on 2015 figures and under almost every heading of economic activity, profits had gone through the roof. Manufacturing profits were up 110% in one year and those in professional and scientific activity were up 63%. In wholesale and retail, the increase was 60%; in administrative support, the increase was 40%; and in accommodation and food, profits were up 37%. I could go through the list. Profits are going through the roof. While everybody else is being told we have to be prudent and we do not have much money, profits are going through the roof. There has been a succession of reports on wealth which show the wealth of the very richest in Irish society has dramatically increased. However, the Minister ignores or dismisses calls from the left to look at these areas and to look at increasing the effective rate of corporate tax, wealth taxes and financial transaction taxes which would give us a much bigger pot for all the things we need to invest in. What does the Minister say to that?