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

I move amendment No. 78:

In page 63, between lines 1 and 2, to insert the following:“23. The Minister for Finance is to order a study to be carried out on introducing a Financial Transactions Tax and is to report to the Dáil within six months of the enactment of this Act on the findings of the study”.

I will be brief to save us all the Chinese torture we are now undergoing. It is more for the record.

In every debate on every Finance Bill since we have come into the Dáil we have said that we should consider a financial transaction tax. I understand about €2 trillion worth flows through the Irish Financial Services Centre on an annual basis. There is a very minimal proposal from Europe for a financial transaction tax of 0.01% on financial transactions, net of the stamp duty we already have and to which the Minister always refers. It is estimated that if we imposed a financial transaction tax, we would generate €320 million net a year, but the figure would probably be much higher.

It is a negligible tax to impose on the financial services industry. It would barely feel it. I do not buy the argument that companies would all migrate somewhere else if a tax of 0.01% was imposed on them, and €320 million or more would be of significant benefit to the people of this country. It would be preferable to water charges or property taxes which hurt families and would cover the cost of abolishing one or other of those taxes. However, the Minister resisted and Ireland, along with our friends in Britain, is at the forefront of resisting this tiny taxation measure on financial speculators.

I do not know why the Minister would not introduce the tax. I have heard him say that he is afraid that things would migrate to the City of London. He has never produced any evidence for that assertion, and frankly I do not buy it. These guys are making an absolute killing. Large amounts of money are moving through the IFSC and businesses could well afford to pay a tiny tax. It is disgraceful that the Irish Government stands out in Europe in resisting this very small measure.

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