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

In terms of a tax on the family home and a tax on wealth - in other words, people who have multiple homes or commercial investment property and large cash reserves and other financial assets - it would not be that difficult to work out the difference between the two. The Central Bank's view is that wealth is half financial and half asset related. For 90% of the population, a significant amount of their wealth would be accounted for by their house, if they had one. On the 5% of the population who hold 40% of the wealth, it is fair to assume that the vast bulk of this wealth which amounts to €250 billion is not accounted for by their family homes. Most of it is multiple property assets that are revenue producing and financial assets, shares and so on. A distinction, in terms of a wealth tax, must be made between the family home in which people need to live and revenue producing commercial property and other assets which are generating, on average, profits of 3%, 4% or 5% per annum. Even a 1% tax on this wealth would not impact on those involved. They would still be super rich, but we would have a lot of revenue to offer alternatives to unfair water charges and property taxes.

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