Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The recommendation calls for a report by the Minister on the potential revenue raised from and the distributional impact of a wealth tax of 2% on all households with assets of more than €20 million. My colleague, Senator Ruane, had an exchange with the Minister on this issue on Committee Stage. We have slightly revised the recommendation to a higher threshold. According to Oxfam's Survival of the Richest report, globally since 2020 the richest 1% have captured almost two-thirds of all new wealth, nearly twice as much money as the bottom 99% of the world's population. Billionaire fortunes are increased by $2.7 billion a day even as inflation outpaces the wages of at least 1.7 billion workers. Food and energy companies have profiteered from the cost-of-living crisis having more than doubled their profits in 2022, paying out $257 billion to wealthy shareholders while more than 800 million people did not have enough food. It is quite shocking. According to the report a tax of up to 5% on the worlds' multimillionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year. That is enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty and fund a global plan to end hunger. While I acknowledge the position that the Government has argued, it does not hold up in the face of the stark wealth inequalities in this country and globally. We are in a climate emergency that is being aggravated in the most extreme ways by our current economic model, and we need radical social and economic transformation. We need to start introducing more equitable wealth in our world.