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

I always find that interesting because it can be seen year on year, basically since the recession, that net household wealth has dramatically increased. The most recent Central Bank bulletin I saw indicated such wealth was more than €1 trillion for the first time. That was net. That will come as a huge surprise to the bottom 50% or 60% who have a tiny proportion of that or, in some cases, owe more than they own. This wealth is heavily concentrated at the top. Is it fair comment, because it seems to be self-evidently the case, that inequality in the distribution of wealth is likely to have grown even further in the past couple of years?

When talking about the cost of living, if someone has surplus money they can invest in bank shares, for example, or in fossil fuel companies or property speculation, not only may they not have lost out as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, there is a very good chance they have seen their net wealth dramatically increase in the last two years. If someone owes a lot of money or does not have a lot of surplus money to invest in bank shares, they will have lost a huge amount. What we are actually seeing as a result of the cost-of-living and inflation crisis is a redistribution from the less well off to the very wealthy. Is that a fair comment?