Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

We know that the wealthiest 5% of the population have assets of approximately €250 billion. We know from recent Central Statistics Office figures that in the year 2009 alone, those same people gained an additional €27.2 billion. These are CSO figures, not my figures. These people do not pay a ha'penny in wealth tax. If they were in most other European countries they would pay a wealth tax and if they were in most states in the United States they would also pay a wealth tax but this Fine Gael-Labour Party Government, like the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government before it, exempts those people from payment of a reasonable share of taxation.

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