Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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We will not agree on the idea of a wealth tax, but every manager in the State knows that one cannot manage if one cannot measure. If the Government does not collect the information, it cannot manage this issue properly either. It is quite shocking that the Government does not know the wealth of the nation. It does not know the wealth in the hands of the people of the State. That means it is blind to one of the biggest economic aspects of running the country, and if it does not know that information it cannot manage that process properly. It is not an argument for non-collection; it is an argument for the collection of that information. If the Nevin institute can work that out from the 2013 CSO data, surely the Government can put in place some level of information to collect. We might disagree on the wealth tax but, at the very least, can we not agree on the necessity to manage the affairs of the nation with the information at our hands?