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

I seek clarification on the resolution. I have no difficulty whatsoever, and in fact am positively in favour of increased taxes on large amounts of accumulated wealth in deposit accounts or anywhere else, but I would not be in favour of anything that would hit relatively modest savers, in particular older people - this seems to be a theme of the budget - who might have built up a modest amount of savings for their old age, but that might come into the net for the planned increase in DIRT.

If I understand correctly the Minister's officials, whom I questioned on this earlier, while this resolution does not deal with the substantive issue of the increase in DIRT that the Minister is proposing, it is essentially facilitating it by removing exemptions that he believes could be used by people trying to escape the increase. This is a pre-emptive move to ensure that as many people as possible, if not everybody, can be hit with the DIRT increase the Minister is proposing in the finance Bill. That is my concern and suspicion. I would like the Minister to elaborate on it. If what I contend is untrue, he should assure us that this measure will not essentially assist him in another grab at the modest savings or nest eggs of ordinary people, particularly the elderly, who may have spent a lifetime acquiring them. These sums are already subject to DIRT but the Minister now wants to make them subject to an even higher rate.

See this speech in context