LAST UPDATE | 16 Jan 2023

THE TWO RICHEST people in Ireland have more wealth – €15 billion – than the 50% of the population at the poorest end, according to a new report from Oxfam.

It outlines that the wealthiest 1% of Irish society now owns more than a quarter of the country’s wealth, or €232 billion. 

The organisation said these are “staggering inequalities” and that there has been an  ”alarming” acceleration in inequitable wealth distribution.

It also claims that for the first time in 25 years, the wealthiest have been getting richer while the poorest continue in the opposite direction.

The report, titled ‘Survival of the Richest’, has been released as elites gather in Davos in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.

It is based on data collated from Forbes, Credit Suisse and Wealth-X.

In Ireland, the number of Irish people with individual wealth of over €46.6 million has “more than doubled” between 2012 and 2022, rising from 655 to 1,435 people.

“The richest 1% of Irish people have 27% of wealth and the bottom own just 1.1%,” it adds.

Oxfam Ireland’s CEO Jim Clarken said the “very existence of billionaires” amid rising inequality was “damning proof of policy failure” by governments. 

“It was 10 years ago when we first sounded the alarm about extreme inequality at the World Economic Forum and yet since then the world’s billionaires have almost doubled their wealth.

“As crisis after crisis hits the poorest people hardest, it’s time for Governments, including Ireland’s, to tax the rich.

“The very existence of billionaires while out-of-control inequality rises, is damning proof of policy failure.”

Oxfam Ireland is proposing a wealth tax which it believes has the potential to transform Irish public services in health, housing and education, while also delivering on international and climate commitments.

This would see graduated rates of 2%, 3% and 5% above a threshold of €4.7 million, which Oxfam has calculated would raise €8.2 billion annually.

Internationally, it claimed that Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, paid a “true tax rate” of just 1% from 2014 to 2018.

It pointed to the example of a market trader in Northern Uganda who sells rice, flour and soya, making $80 a month in profit but paying a tax rate of 40%.

“Global progress in reducing extreme poverty has grinded to a halt,” it said.