Richard Boyd Barrett: Rich Get Richer, Workers Pay the Price
Richard Boyd Barrett responds to a Labour Party motion calling for a mini-budget to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, arguing that wealth concentration and tax injustice have made the crisis worse. He presents statistics on billionaire wealth, corporate profits and tax contributions, and urges a wealth tax to fund relief for working people.
Richard Boyd Barrett opens by endorsing parts of the Labour Party motion but argues the underlying problem is a transfer of wealth from workers to the rich. He highlights that while hundreds of thousands face utility arrears and rising bills, the number and wealth of billionaires in Ireland have grown.
He cites figures: Ireland moved from nine to eleven billionaires, whose wealth rose by 13 billion euro last year. Boyd Barrett contrasts total worker earnings (130 billion euro) and the 32 billion they pay in tax with business profits (318 billion) paying 23 billion in tax, arguing profits have surged while tax contributions from the wealthy lag.
He describes how rezonings inflate land values overnight - from roughly 160,000 euro per hectare to 1.6 million and, in market terms, possibly 16 million - and links those windfalls to rising house prices and rents. He contends this is not a victimless gain but a transfer that worsens housing affordability.
Boyd Barrett ends with a concrete example: a low-paid civil service clerical officer with four children who risks losing housing supports after a small pay increment. He points to proposals such as an Oxfam-supported wealth tax on the wealthiest 20,000 to raise an estimated 9 billion euro for cost-of-living relief and services.
Main claim
Richard Boyd Barrett opens by endorsing parts of the Labour Party motion but argues the underlying problem is a transfer of wealth from workers to the rich. He highlights that while hundreds of thousands face utility arrears and rising bills, the number and wealth of billionaires in Ireland have grown.
Wealth and profits examined
He cites figures: Ireland moved from nine to eleven billionaires, whose wealth rose by 13 billion euro last year. Boyd Barrett contrasts total worker earnings (130 billion euro) and the 32 billion they pay in tax with business profits (318 billion) paying 23 billion in tax, arguing profits have surged while tax contributions from the wealthy lag.
Rezoning, housing and consequences
He describes how rezonings inflate land values overnight - from roughly 160,000 euro per hectare to 1.6 million and, in market terms, possibly 16 million - and links those windfalls to rising house prices and rents. He contends this is not a victimless gain but a transfer that worsens housing affordability.
Personal impact and policy proposal
Boyd Barrett ends with a concrete example: a low-paid civil service clerical officer with four children who risks losing housing supports after a small pay increment. He points to proposals such as an Oxfam-supported wealth tax on the wealthiest 20,000 to raise an estimated 9 billion euro for cost-of-living relief and services.
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Transcript
Thanks to the Labour Party for this motion and suggesting that we should have a mini budget to address the cost of living crisis and there's quite a few of the measures that we would agree with and some of them would be in our own budget, alternative budget. Fact, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. That's a fact in Ireland, right? While there's a cost of living crisis going on for working people in this country half a million of whom are either have gas or electricity arrears, who are crushed with USC, carbon taxes, you name it, energy price hikes, food price hikes. While all of that is happening to working people, the rich are getting richer. There used to be, the year before last, there were nine billionaires in Ireland, now there are eleven. Those billionaires, their wealth went up by 13 billion last year. Just 11 people, their wealth went up by 13 billion. There are 1400 people in Ireland who have more than 47 million euro each. There are 20,000 people in this country who have more than 4.7 million euro each. If we just put a wealth tax, as Oxfam have proposed, on that group of people, just that group, 20,000 people, it would raise 9 billion euro. Imagine what we could do with 9 billion euro in terms of really the cost of living breaks that working people need. Similar picture on profits. Profits up 300% in the last 10 years. 2014, 95 billion total profits for tax. 2023, 318 billion. And here's the real kicker about all this. The total earnings of every worker in this country, there are 3.3 million workers in this country, is 130 billion. All the way just together, 130 billion. How much tax do those 3.3 million workers pay on that income? 32 billion. What is the total profits of the 170,000 businesses in this country? 318 billion. More than twice what all the workers earn between them. How much tax do they pay? 23 billion. So the rich earn far more and pay far less in tax. The workers earn less, pay more. With USC, with excessive electricity and energy costs, with carbon taxes, you name it. Profits go up for the super rich and they pay less tax and we get more billionaires while workers are screwed to the wall with the cost of living. How do these things happen? I'll give you an example. Rezonings at the moment. Government is rezoning land all over the place, right? The value of the rezoned land is going up from, I think it's about 160,000 per hectare when it's zoned agricultural, then it goes up to 1.6 million per hectare after it's rezoned. And actually, when it's sold on the market, you're probably talking about more like 16 million. So overnight, somebody who owns that land, who's done absolutely nothing, is made a multi-millionaire by rezonings that are happening all over Dublin at the moment, courtesy of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Now is that a victimless crime? No. That extra money that has gone into their pockets, millions, because of votes of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and in some cases Green Party councillors and others, goes into the price of the houses. That's why the price of the houses is so high and the price of the rents. That's where they get the money from. It doesn't come out of the sky. It comes out of the price that you pay or the rent you pay. That's how they get rich overnight. It's not magic. It's a transfer of wealth from working people who can't afford a house or can't afford the rents into the pockets of rich people who've done nothing except own a piece of land that is rezoned. And what about the worker? This week, just to finish on this, clerical officer working for the civil service earning 32,000 euro has four children. Should be below the social housing income threshold limit but he gets family income supplement. His income is so low and if he gets this year's increment this summer he will be thrown off the housing list and he won't even be eligible for HAP on 32,000 euro with four kids. The workers get screwed, the rich get richer. That's what's happening in this country.