Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is a missed opportunity not to have this report. The IMF has said that post-pandemic, we should look at a solidarity tax. In terms of where the conversation is at for a lot of people, it is a missed opportunity not to prepare this kind of report looking at the possibility of a wealth tax. In 2016 the ESRI prepared a report entitled Scenarios and Distributional Implications of a Household Wealth Tax in Ireland. That was five years ago so why not consider an updated report now? The Minister said that it might be difficult to do but it would be up to the authors of the report to look at that. The report could tell us whether it is unworkable. In reality, we have better data collection and automatic exchange of information now, including registries of beneficial ownership and so on. If we look at all of that, surely we have better access to data now than we ever did. This would be something for the report to look at but the conversation is out there now; it is being argued that we need a wealth tax or a solidarity tax. The Minister said that amendments calling for reports could be interpreted by the outside world as being a policy change rather than just a report but that should not stop us from undertaking these kinds of reports. Of course, I would like to see a wealth tax implemented but I do not think that should stop us from doing these kinds of reports. It is absolutely imperative that we do so and there is an onus on us, as members of this committee, to commission a report to see if such a tax is workable. The Minister might disagree with us and argue that it is not workable but let us commission a report on it and take a look at that question. It is a missed opportunity not to have such a report.