Dáil debates

Thursday, 16 June 2022

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions

Tax Collection

9:40 am

Photo of Bríd SmithBríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

If the Minister of State reads the Oxfam report when he gets a chance, he will see it is looking at extreme wealth and how it has doubled, tripled and, in the US, increased tenfold in recent years. In the 1980s, we were told there was no money, we were bust and needed to tighten our belts. We know since there was plenty of it but it was held in Ansbascher accounts, offshore tax havens and brass plate companies. We have seen the studies from the Paradise Papers and the Panama Papers so we know there were and are ways for the extremely wealthy not to tell the truth about their wealth. We have quite a lot of millionaires and nine billionaires in this country. For a small island, that is staggering.

The paper suggests many ways tax could be taken from the wealthy. Not to have them self-reporting would be a start, but rather to have somebody delve into their wealth; as well as not giving them this obscure way of hiding their wealth but forcing them to show it. Many wealthy companies and people say they cannot afford the tax because it is all in shares. They also suggest the Government take the tax in kind and take shares. We have worked out that could yield €4 billion, which would do a lot to provide free public transport, double the number of buses on the road and give free childcare to every family. A lot could be done with that to address the multiple crises we face.

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