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

This is not a general discussion about corporate tax rates; this is a specific call for a windfall tax on vulture funds and banks that are profiteering at the expense of mortgage holders who have seen an increase in mortgage interest repayments to the tune of €4,000 or €5,000. These are unsustainable increases in a situation of bonanza profits being made by these vulture funds that affect hundreds of thousands of ordinary people. Even the EU has agreed to exceptional windfall taxes on the energy sector, which the Government still has not implemented, although it has committed to do so. I am arguing that in the case of vulture funds that do not contribute anything to our country - they just buy up people's mortgages and then charge them massive interest on their mortgage debt - or banks that are making super profits on the basis of increased interest rates, it would be reasonable to impose a time-limited windfall tax while they are making super profits and to use those revenues to protect mortgage holders.

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