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

In addition to dealing with the €3.5 billion deficit by taking €35,000 in taxes from the richest 5% in our society, which would still leave them very rich, we need money for a stimulus investment programme. One cannot have jobs or recovery without such a programme. Where would one raise the funding for it? From the corporate sector, which is creaming it in profits and pays an effective tax rate of 10%. Last week when I asked the Minister for Finance for the latest figures on the yield from this sector, he said they were not available yet. However, in 2008, after the collapse, total corporate profits in this State came to €51 billion, on which tax paid came to €5 billion. That is an effective rate not of 12.5% but of 10%. By bringing up the effective corporate tax rate to the nominal rate of 12.5%, we would raise €1.25 billion. I am sure the multinationals will not go running out of the country because they have to pay a nominal corporate tax rate of 12.5%.

We could also raise €750 million by housing the 100,000 people on the housing list. We now spend €500 million in rent allowance to private landlords to house these people. If the State housed them, we would save that €500 million and get €250 million in revenue back in the form of rent. Why can we not do this?

Deputy O’Donnell said we needed to deal with the unemployment crisis because it is costing us €20,000 per person to keep these people unemployed when they would prefer to have jobs. With 340,000 people, that cost comes to €6.4 billion a year. Alternatively, if we employed those people in public works and infrastructure programmes, strategic industries and so forth on an average wage of €30,000 a year, it would cost us only another €3.2 billion. These people would be put back to work developing the infrastructure, strategic industry and enterprise we need to get the economy moving. This money could be raised through wealth taxes, a small increase in corporate tax and resolving the housing list issue.

While Deputy O’Donnell rightly bemoans the fact the banks are not investing - they are risk-averse, as he called it – I ask why we cannot do something about it. We bailed out the banks, making us their majority shareholders. They are now the most highly capitalised in Europe but they still will not lend or invest in the economy. Why do we not simply assert control over the banks directly and force them to invest as a strategic investment bank, just as Deputy O’Donnell said? The Government is committed to the idea as it is in its programme for Government. However, it has not materialised, as there is no strategic investment. We do not even need to set up a new bank as we own the banks already. Why can we not take direct control of the banks that we own and force them to invest in the economy and extend lines of credit to small and medium-sized enterprises? I do not understand why we are not willing to do this, although it is possibly an ideological commitment of Fine Gael not to interfere with the private ownership of banks. That strategy is failing, however.

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