Michael Mullins (Fine Gael)

I did. However, I raised this matter when the Minister for Finance was in the House. The Senator talks about taxing the wealthy, but who are they? Are they the people who were lured into buying an extra house or two? They were encouraged to do so by the Government and financial institutions and are now left with property worth a fraction of what they paid for it and on which they are paying mortgages. Are they retirees who were encouraged to invest their retirement lump sums in Bank of Ireland shares and now see that money has disappeared? People whom we thought were wealthy a few years ago are the new poor. It is populist to say, "Tax the wealthy," but the wealthy make up a much smaller proportion of the population than heretofore.