People Before Profit call for a Covid solidarity tax on wealth and super profits as Oxfam report shows vast increases in wealth for Irish rich
The super wealthy and companies making super profits during the pandemic should be levied to assist those who are suffering its impacts
People Before Profit TD, and member of the Dáil Budgetary Oversight committee, Richard Boyd Barrett, on behalf of his group, is calling on the government to implement a “Covid Solidarity tax” on Irish billionaires, the super wealthy and corporate super profits in light of the most recent Oxfam Report.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said, the proceeds of Covid Solidarity taxes should be used to support those hit hardest by the pandemic and support front line workers and services.
The Inequality Virus report shows that the fortunes of Irish billionaires has increases by €3.3 billion since the start of the pandemic.
The TD said: “The wealth being accrued by the Irish rich as demonstrated in this report shows that we have a two-tier pandemic. On the one hand we have people who have lost their income, or large proportions of it, or in many cases their jobs and livelihoods; frontline healthcare staff risking their lives to keep us safe and student nurses who are not paid for the legitimate work they are doing- and on the other hand we can see massive wealth accumulation by Irish billionaires.
“People Before Profit want the government to implement a Covid Solidarity tax in order to gather more funds to assist those whose incomes have been devastated by the pandemic and to invest in our frontline health and other services, and properly reward the frontline and essential workers who have protected and sustained us during the crisis.
“The Covid crisis as well as hammering our public health systems, our economy and tragically claiming the lives of thousands of people in this country, has exposed vast inequality in this country a truly puts to bed the governments line of ‘we are all in this together’. Let’s take the sort of action that would make that more than an empty slogan.”