A REDISTRIBUTION OF “massive wealth” in Ireland could help to fund new housing and public services, People Before Profit said.

The party’s alternative budget, launched today in Dublin, said its wealth redistribution proposals would bring in over €53 billion.

The plan outlines how a multi-millionaires tax, on those with wealth in excess of €3 million, could raise €9 billion.

That alone, according to the party’s leader Richard Boyd Barrett, would pay for an entire package of budgetary measures.

The measures in his party’s alternative budget it would cover include a €500 electricity credit, a 10% public sector pay increase, €350 a week disability payments, as well as an extra €55 for cost of disability payment.

People Before Profit leader, Richard Boyd Barrett said taxing multi-millionaires would be enough to fund a whole budget (Niall Carson/PA) PA PA

It would also pay for all third-level fees and childcare fees to be abolished, a tripling of spending on social and affordable housing and 500 electric buses and all costs associated with them, Boyd Barrett said.

“We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet the majority of workers and households are seriously struggling with the cost of living and a majority of our young people are thinking of leaving the country altogether because they can’t afford to live here.

“The problem is not that we don’t have the wealth to solve these problems, the problem is the distribution of that wealth, and the way Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael prioritise the interests of big corporations and the super-wealthy over the needs of ordinary working people.”

The party’s alternative budget also proposed other “radical” wealth taxes like a financial translations tax, increasing the corporation tax rate to 20% and higher income tax rates for very high earners.

Boyd Barrett said it’s time for a redistribution of wealth, from the top to the bottom.

“We now have 11 billionaires in Ireland who have more wealth than 3,500,000 people combined.

“The cost-of-living crisis has intensified while record profits are recorded by corporations, energy companies, developers and big landlords,” he said.

“Budget 2026 was a disaster for workers and families, and people with disabilities were left €1,400 worse off. In contrast, large tax cuts were handed out to property developers and fast food chains.

“This must not happen again.

“It is time to redistribute the massive wealth in this state from multi-millionaires and from corporate profits to the people who create the wealth, to fund new housing, quality public services and a just transition.”

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said that Ireland is a corporate tax haven, and the government has no alternative plan (Mchel Scannil/PA) PA PA

Asked about the potential for these taxes driving big corporations away from Ireland, People before Profit TD Paul Murphy said that it should not matter, that the needs of the people of Ireland should come first.

“We don’t accept that we should be held hostage, and our people should be held hostage to the demands of US corporations that are using Ireland as a conduit corporate tax haven,” he said.

“This is going to end, and the Irish political establishment has no alternative plan.

“They don’t have another strategy other than doubling down on this.

“We think we need a radically different approach, which starts from the need not of these companies to maximise their profits and to wash their profits more, but starts from the need of people not to be impacted by the cost-of-living crisis, to have a decent health service, have access to housing, to transition away from reliance on fossil fuels, and like that’s our starting point.

“We’re not committed to being the best corporate tax haven in the world.

“Our model is to say we’ll use the revenues that we have, make the corporations pay more tax, and then use that money to diversify and put the economy on a fundamental human basis.”