Dr. Miche?l Collins:

I thank the Deputy for the question and for raising the issue. I am not an expert on trusts either. They are relatively uncommon but they are clearly in need of regulation. There is strong merit in that. We should not, however, get sidetracked from the larger area of action on capital acquisitions tax, which is around the very large inheritances that very few people can experience. The current structure of our system accommodates that very favourably for those very small groups of people. If we now find ourselves in a period where we have had very large increases in house and land prices over the past decade or two, which, as Dr. McDonnell said earlier, is the principal source of wealth in this country, we can expect that over the next two decades a very large proportion of that wealth will transfer from one generation to another. Our structures currently allow that to transfer very favourably and, therefore, will further concentrate wealth among a smaller group in our society.

That throws up a question. As a society, we may or may not be comfortable with that and proceeding in that way but we should certainly have that discussion. I personally think we should clamp down on or in some way limit it, as I said, and the commission's report points in that direction. It is certainly a discussion we need to have. If we do not, this transfer of wealth will happen automatically and we will end up in one or two decades' time looking at an even more unequal distribution of wealth and being concerned about that and the negative implications it tends to have for societies.