Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand there is a small handful of wealthy people. I do not know any of them or where they live. I have not encountered them but I take the Deputy's point. If they are tax resident in Ireland, they are covered for all taxation therein. A small proportion of taxpayers, some 1%, pay 25% of all income tax. We have a similar pattern in corporation tax, where a small handful of major companies pay the vast bulk of it. To that extent, we collect tax, whether wealth or income tax, from the very profitable, wealthy organisations.

I gave an example of how tax is progressive in Ireland and what we have done on wealth tax. The top three forms of wealth in Ireland are as follows: people's houses, with the value of houses being the most significant part of wealth. The second most significant is farmland. Land is valuable but is a working asset for the next generation. The third most significant is people's pension funds, about which I would be concerned if we started taxing. People invest to make sure when they retire they are not dependent on the State and have a pension fund built up over the years, some of it in shares. I would be horrified if we were to start attacking pension funds, thinking we were getting solely at the wealthy. Most people need those funds and have put into it on the basis that they will be able to draw them down.

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