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

I move amendment No. 12:

In page 20, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following:

“CHAPTER 4

Wealth Taxes

Reports

16. Within three months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay a report before Dáil Éireann, on the amount of revenue that would be raised if he were to tax the top 5 per cent of households 2 per cent of their accumulated wealth less 1 million for a family home.”.

We raise the issue of wealth taxes every year. We are consistent in believing that we need to have wealth taxes in order to have a just taxation system and additional resources which are badly needed to fund our public services. Of course, the following point is an obvious one but nonetheless well worth reiterating. People ask where we will get the money for the national health service we need and the increased capacity we urgently need, now more than ever, after Covid, for our health service to give us those ICU beds and the public health teams we need; staff our health services; and fix all the school buildings in our education system, many of which are dilapidated, a matter that is now more than ever important given the issue of overcrowded classrooms and Covid transmission. One can go through the list of the money we need in retrofitting and public transport. One has to have the money. One has to get it from somewhere.

However, we are consistent in not making calls for additional spending without proposing sources of revenue. We are the most prudential party in the Dáil. The Government is financing most of its additional expenditure through debt. While interest rates are low, that can change, and our debt profile would be pretty scary if it were to change. We are not against some borrowing, but we would not need to borrow as much if we got the wealthy in our society to pay their fair share of tax, which they do not. That would provide billions extra which we would not have to borrow to put into health, education, housing, public transport, climate measures and so on.

One does not get much change in this country for raising these questions, from the media or political commentators, but the time will come when the wealth tax will be discussed in a serious way and we will keep battering away at it until such a moment. Other countries have wealth taxes and some of them have introduced those wealth taxes recently in the context of Covid-19, which is right and proper because many people suffered significant economic hardship and impacts as a result of Covid-19 whereas others did extremely well during the pandemic. Ireland is one of those countries.

I doubt whether anyone is taking any notice in media circles and they just think these are the sort of things the left always talks about. However, it staggers me and I was staggered once again, when I looked at the latest Central Bank quarterly report with its figures on household wealth, published in November. When we wrote our alternative budget and the wealth tax we proposed, the net household wealth for the entire country, after debts, was €883 billion. At that time, that was a staggering increase of €89 billion on the figure for the previous year. However, when I looked just two months later, it had gone up to €935 billion. In just a few months, the extent of household wealth in this country has jumped enormously. I hope the Central Bank provides a figure on what that would mean per household. It was €177,000,per capita, per household. If that money was spread out, each household on average would have €177,000. In the latest figures, each house, on average, would have €186,000, if that money was spread out evenly. However, of course, the vast majority of people do not have anything even closely approximating that.

I know the Minister will say that is mostly households assets, but it is not. More than €400 billion of that is financial assets. The financial assets have jumped by €13 billion since the last figures produced by the quarterly report. The facts speak for themselves. Rich people have become much richer, because ordinary people have not seen massive jumps of that proportion in their wealth. Many have seen their incomes fall. Many are impacted by energy price hikes, inflation and all that kind of stuff and have been limited to 1% or 2% pay increases, if a public sector worker. Where is all this additional money going? It is going to the 10% who have 53% of all that wealth. They are getting richer. Having money makes money and one becomes wealthier and wealthier, whether it is property or financial assets.

We propose a modest measure to have a tax targeted at the richest 5%, which is 85,000 households that have approximately €3 million to €4 million each in average income, to allow them €1 million for a house. The house does not get taxed. After that, we propose putting a 2% annual tax on what is left. They would not even feel it. Their wealth is accumulating at a much faster rate than that, annually, according to these figures. However, in our budget estimate, doing so would raise €4.9 billion. It is probably more now, given the increase in figures and they would barely even feel it, but that is a considerable sum of money which could come in every year to help fund the social housing, public transport, health and education where we desperately need money.

Once again, we put the proposal and challenge the Government as to why that would not be a fair and reasonable thing to do.

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