Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 144: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the needs of Ireland's retail industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37731/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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With regard to comments made by the retail industry as regards VAT, I have announced that I will be proposing to Government an increase in the standard rate of VAT of 2 percentage points from 21% to 23%. This change is being introduced as part of a general package of revenue-raising measures to contribute to Exchequer funding and is in line with commitments made in the Programme for Government and in the EU/IMF Programme. With regard to the industry's concerns that the VAT increase will encourage cross-border shopping, studies have shown that the key driver of cross border shopping is the currency exchange rate and not VAT rates. In this respect, the current exchange rate between Sterling and the Euro should provide less incentive for people to shop outside the State, despite the proposed increase in the Irish VAT rate.

Furthermore, it must be pointed out that for the majority of the last two decades there was a differential of 3.5 percentage points between the VAT rates of Ireland and the UK, with Ireland at 21% and the UK at 17.5%. With the proposed increase in the Irish standard VAT rate to 23% as compared to the current 20% UK rate, the differential is narrower than has generally been the case.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 145: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount per percentage point a tax on wealth, assets and savings, excluding principal private residences valued over €1m, and on savings over €50,000 would earn for the Exchequer annually; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37742/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Central Statistics Office that the CSO institutional accounts do not give an indication of the number of households or persons classified by the categories of wealth they hold. These statistics are based on aggregate information collected from financial institutions and do not contain the demographic details which would enable such a breakdown of the statistics. I am also informed by the Revenue Commissioners that they have no statistical basis for compiling estimates in relation to a potential wealth tax. It is therefore not possible to provide the information requested by the Deputy on the potential return from a wealth tax. Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) are, in effect, taxes on wealth, in that they are levied on an individual or company on the disposal of an asset (CGT) or the acquisition of an asset through gift or inheritance (CAT). The rate of both these taxes is currently 25%. However, they are not annual taxes on an individual's wealth, which is presumably what the Deputy has in mind.

While I do not propose at this time to introduce a wealth tax, all taxes and potential taxation measures are constantly reviewed in the context of the Budget and Finance Bill.