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

I strongly agree with the Minister's sentiments about so-called experts in the media. They drive me bonkers.

When we oppose measures such as a property tax, the universal social charge and water charges the Minister states we do not have alternatives to propose. When we call for big programmes of investment in social housing, which would deal with the threat of a property bubble, the Minister asks where we will get the money. Our view is that imposing higher income taxes on those earning more than €100,000 would yield a great deal of revenue, put money back into the economy and not really damage the economy because it would be taken off high earners who have enough to manage anyway. Will the Minister respond to this, particularly in light of the written question to which I received a response yesterday, which was based on a draft proposal. It showed that, according to the Department, if we had a 50% band rate on earnings between €100,000 and €140,000; a 55% rate on earnings between €140,000 and €180,000; a 60% rate on earnings between €180,000 and €250,000; and a 65% rate on earnings over €250,000 it could yield €922 million a year. These are akin to income tax rates in places such as Scandinavia, and what existed in much of the world in the 1960s and 1970s. I do not see any reason we cannot do this as an alternative to hitting low and middle income earners again and again.

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