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

I appreciate that, Chair. Trying to bilocate in here can be difficult at times. The amendment which I had hoped to move related to this section. It was amendment to look at the special assignee relief programme. This is one of the most egregious tax breaks that is given to some of the highest earners in this country. Many people are not aware of it but it really sticks in the craw of any ordinary worker who becomes of aware of the fact that there is a specially designed relief on income tax, which you only get if you earn more than €75,000 per year. The thought of that is in and of itself to me mind-boggling, that is, that there is a tax relief that you can only get if you earn approximately twice the average industrial wage. Included in that is the relief for paying fees for private schooling and for trips abroad, or home, in the case of foreign executives who are on these earnings. It is well worth saying that while the threshold for being eligible for special assignee tax relief is that one has to earn more than €75,000, the recipients of this relief earn, in many cases, a hell of a lot more than that.

The Minister sent us some recent figures. I have figures from a reply to a parliamentary question that I asked earlier. The Minister might give us the updated figures. They are quite extraordinary. In 2016 there were 95 recipients of the relief who earned between €375,000 and €675,000.

There were 26 recipients who earned between €670,000 and €1 million. For this year, if I remember the figures correctly, 50 people who earn in excess of €1 million will get this relief. Anybody who hears about this is gobsmacked. It is lucky for the Government that most people do not know about it. If they did, they would be enraged. People need to know about it, which is why I am keen it be highlighted as part of the debate on the Finance Bill. There should be a review of it and I hope at the end of that we would decide it is unconscionable and unjustifiable.

The Minister will say that this brings executives in and Government policy is at least consistent in being all about executives and owners of some of the wealthiest multinational corporations in the world. They feel we would do anything for them. All the policy measures relating to them add up to the feeling that Ireland is a place that will do anything for them, even giving them tax reliefs on extraordinary salaries that no ordinary worker could dream of getting.

This is an interesting contrast with the universal social charge. The Minister will say they pay that charge. I accept that they do, but the idea that 30% of their income over €75,000 up to €1 million would not be taxed is remarkable. Imagine what it would do for a lot of workers if they got relief at a threshold above, say, €20,000, such that 30% of their income would not be taxed. They would love it but, unfortunately, it is a privilege only given to people earning more than €75,000 or, in many cases, earning €675,000, €1 million or whatever.

I do not think it is justifiable or necessary. When you are on that kind of money, do you need tax breaks additional to what everyone else is getting in order to come here? Those who do must be incredibly greedy if they are on that kind of money and want tax breaks additional to what other people get. It is important to highlight this matter and to appeal again to the Government to reconsider this grossly unjust tax relief for the highest earners.