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Wealth Audit

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 January 2018

Tuesday, 30 January 2018

Questions (96)

Joan Burton

Question:

96. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to a report (details supplied); his plans to address the over concentration of wealth in a small number of persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4136/18]

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Written answers

I am aware of the Oxfam report, entitled “Reward Work, Not Wealth”, which was published on 22 January 2018. This report takes a global perspective in examining inequality.

At the outset, I want to outline Ireland’s position regarding the distribution of wealth. In 2013, the Central Statistics Office conducted the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), which provided the first comprehensive data on Irish household wealth.

The net wealth Gini coefficient is a commonly used measure of inequality, where a figure of 100 indicates that one household holds all the wealth and 0 indicates that wealth is evenly divided among all households. This measure, based on the HFCS data, indicates that wealth inequality in Ireland (64) for 2013 is lower than the euro area average (69). In addition, the HFCS results also show that wealth in Ireland is less concentrated at the top of the distribution (i.e. the top 1% of the population) than the euro area average.

In line with the Oxfam report’s recommendations to governments for tackling wealth inequality, the Irish Government is committed to various targets, policies and initiatives to further reduce inequality in Ireland:

Firstly, we are committed to further implementation and progress towards our inequality reduction goals within the Programme for Partnership Government, particularly through the equality proofing process of the budget.

Our highly progressive income tax and well-targeted welfare systems are notably successful at reducing income inequality. In fact, the most up-to-date OECD data available show that Ireland’s tax and welfare system creates the largest improvement in the equality of income distribution of all OECD countries for which data are available.

We are also dedicated to further advancements in the area of limiting tax avoidance, which is evident, for example, through our involvement in the OECD BEPS initiative.

Furthermore, additional policy measures such as regular reviews and/or increases of the national minimum wage also support the goal of a more equal income distribution.

Finally, I would like to highlight that Ireland already taxes wealth in a variety of ways which support redistribution, such as our Capital Gains Tax (CGT), Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT), Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT), and the Local Property Tax.

My Department will continue to monitor and consider any additional information that comes to light on this topic, and will continue to examine and regularly review all taxes and potential policy measures to further tackle wealth and income inequality.

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