Richard Boyd Barrett: Calls to Abolish USC and Tax the Wealthy

Okay, so our amendment is proposing that the government should get rid of the universal social charge for anybody who is earning less than €100,000 and replace it with a wealth tax on the very richest in our society. Others have made promises, notably the Fianna Gael government when they introduced the universal social charge, itself a grossly unfair act by a government who made Fianna Fáil, what Fianna Gael did is said they would get rid of the universal social charge and then reneged on the commitment to do so. People before profit have been very consistent on our view about the universal social charge. Since we entered this Dáil in 2011, it was a grossly unfair austerity imposition on working people to pay for the crimes of the bankers and the property developers who put this country over a cliff in 2008. And the workers got it in the neck and were asked to pay for the crimes of others. But it was supposed to be a temporary austerity measure. And workers were promised that it would go when the crisis had passed. And that promise has been reneged upon. And anybody who thinks that workers out there are still not very, very sore about that fact isn't talking to workers. And I think anybody who is knows that's the truth. They are very angry and bitter about the fact that every week or every month when they get their paycheck, there's a little thing in brackets, the universal social charge, which takes a big chunk out of their wages. That was supposed to be temporary and where they were paying for the crimes of others. And despite the promises, despite the commitments, when this economy is now recording record budget surpluses, 24 billion euro in surplus, plus 13 billion euro in windfall from Apple tax, apparently you still can't keep your promise to get rid of this temporary emergency, unfair tax on working people. The working people who generated that surplus. Because that's who generates, surpluses don't pop out of the sky. The surplus in the Irish economy has been generated by the hard work of working people in this country. But even now, when they are generating a record surplus, you won't honour your commitment to get rid of the universal social charge. And the reason is because you want to give the benefits of the surplus, of the unprecedented wealth that is being generated in this country to the super rich. To the multi-millionaires and the billionaires and the corporations who are enjoying a bonanza in profits and an unprecedented growth in their personal wealth. That is the truth. You have robbed the poor to pay the rich. And that's why you won't get rid of the universal social charge. And that is not just rhetoric. It is borne out by the facts. It's never really discussed the detail of all of this. But it really is worth spelling out the truth of it. Because I heard you say, oh, it's progressive. What we've done in the budget is progressive. I'll tell you what's not progressive. It's how much workers earn and how much they pay in tax as against how much corporations earn and how much they pay in tax. So the biggest tax head, the biggest source of revenue for the government, it's 37% of all tax revenue comes from workers. Their total income of all workers in 2023 was 144 billion euro. That's every worker, all their income. But they paid 24 billion in tax, which amounts to 16.6% tax on their income. When all the tax credits and so on are counted in, workers in total, 3.1 million of them earned 144 billion and they paid 24 billion in tax. In contrast, corporations in the same year earned 317 billion but only paid 22 billion in tax, 7.1% of their pre-tax income. So, corporations have seen their income go through the roof. They earn vastly more pre-tax income than the 3.1 million workers in this country. But they pay less in tax and proportionately they pay less than half what the workers pay on their income. That is the truth. And it's important to say that, I mean, currently, corporation tax receipts represent 27% of all tax paid. Workers pay 37% on substantially less income. But that figure jumped hugely after the introduction of the USC. The amount, the proportion of the revenue that is available to the government. And I often always find it somewhat laughable at budget when finance ministers and public expenditure ministers says, I am allocating this to you, when what is actually happening is that the minister for finance or public expenditure is giving workers back their own money. Because the money they have has been generated by the workers. And then they give a little bit back. But they're giving most of it back in tax breaks to the big corporations who are paying proportionately less than half of what workers pay on a far lower amount of income. And then, of course, there's the individual. I've mentioned the corporations. But then there's the individuals who might be subject to the wealth tax that we're proposing. And again, the figures are just mind-boggling. Mind-boggling. In quarter four, 2023, the central bank quarterly accounts showed that the net wealth of all Irish households was 1.1 trillion euro. That's 1,100 billion euro. That had increased by 33.2 billion in just the last quarter of 2023. Incredible amount of money. But what's really shocking about that, because you think, oh my God, how could there be that much wealth in the country when workers are crushed with the cost of living? Well, again, helpfully, the central bank explains. Because just 10% of Irish households own 54% of that wealth. Absolutely extraordinary. 10% of Irish households own 54% of 1.1 trillion euro. And that is increasing exponentially year on year, while the real value of workers' incomes is getting less under the impact of the cost of living crisis, and where they continue to be crushed with taxes like the USC. Incredibly, there are now 1,400 individuals in this country with wealth of over 47 million euro. There is an incredible 20,000 individuals with wealth over 4.7 million euro. 20,000 people with more than 4.5 million euro each in wealth and assets. Extraordinary. And Oxfam proposed, very simple, we've been proposing it for years, but I was very happy to see others proposing this, that we would have a wealth tax. That would propose a very, very small little tax on that wealth. Over 4.7 million. So just on 20,000 richest people in this country who have a lot of money to put a 2% tax on the net wealth of that group, if their wealth was between 4.7 million and 50 million. 3% on wealth between 50 million and 1 billion. And 5% on all wealth over 1 billion, which would be on about 10 individuals. Even still, they probably generate 5% growth in that wealth in the course of a year. So they probably wouldn't even feel it, but that would generate about 8 billion euro. We asked the question during the summer, how much would it cost to get rid of the, to you, Minister Chambers, how much would it cost to get rid of the universal social charge for everybody earning less than 100,000 euro, 2.5 billion. 2.5 billion. So we could remove this brutal austerity tax, dramatically improve the situation, the financial situation, of hundreds of thousands of workers in this country, at the cost of 2.5 billion and a very modest little tax on the richest 20,000 multimillionaires in this country, which they wouldn't even fail, would pay for it four times over. Four times over. There'd be money to burn. If we did that, to put into other things like housing, health care and so on. But you just won't do it. I mean, even now the Commission on Taxation and other very, very middle of the road economic think tanks are saying we should seriously consider introducing wealth taxes. But you still won't do it. You still won't do it. The rich wouldn't even feel it, but the workers would feel it a lot. And it would be just, it would be fair to do that, but you won't do it. And it's criminal, in my opinion. It is robbery of the working people of this country who've generated a record budget surplus to continue to essentially siphon that money into the pockets of super wealthy corporations and the richest in Irish society. So, I'm sure the government won't respond in any way to this, but at least we remain consistent in saying the USC is unfair. It was a gross imposition on working people. You should honor your commitment to get rid of it and ask the very wealthy who've done extremely well in this country and the big corporations to pay a small little bit of extra tax in order to give working people in this country a bit of justice. So, thank you very much.