Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 8 December 2020

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Post-Budget Analysis: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council

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

I thank the witnesses from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council for their contributions, which I always enjoy and learn from, and I welcome them to the committee. I know that they are reluctant to comment on particular policy proposals but in their report, they are willing to go as far as using the word "appropriate" when it comes to, for example, the decision of the Government to borrow to finance Covid spending. Can the witnesses use the words "appropriate" or "legitimate" when it comes to the issue of wealth taxes as a possible response to the hard choices they say we have to make as a result of the risks that exist including Brexit, Covid, possible changes in the global corporate tax infrastructure and so on? Is it fair to say that it would be appropriate or at least a legitimate thing to consider that rather than continuing to borrow, which we cannot do indefinitely, it might even be more prudent to introduce wealth taxes, as is being done in places such as Argentina, on the back of the Covid crisis?

I ask in particular because it is now becoming clear that while some sectors have been very hard hit, others have done well during Covid. Even from the point of view of balancing things up, is the introduction of redistributive taxes to pay for Covid expenditure, additional capital expenditure and so on, rather than borrowing, something that should be actively considered and taken seriously, as it is in other places in the world but rarely here?

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