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

The Minister is right that I and others have been raising these issues for the past several years. It is useful, however, to see what the totals are and how much has been taken from the pockets of people who had no responsibility for the economic crisis. What have they got back for it? Nothing. That puts into context what the Minister claims he will give back to them.

Another point I repeatedly make to the Minister, but one to which he never responds, is this. How is it that workers have lost €14 billion as a result of the austerity charges and taxes while, coincidentally, the super-rich in society have gained about the same amount of money? This is according to The Sunday Timesrich list, as well as the wealth distribution figures produced by TASC, Credit Suisse and Social Justice Ireland. How is it that what has been taken from the pockets of the working people has managed to end up in the pockets of the super-rich?

See this speech in context