Paul Murphy: Slams inheritance change as €21,450 boost for richest 3%
Paul Murphy criticised a budget move and an accompanying inheritance tax change, arguing the child payment of €420 is token while an inheritance threshold increase amounts to a €21,450 windfall for the wealthiest households. He said the measure primarily benefits a small proportion of well-off families and is being introduced while many children and families struggle.
Budget baby boost versus inheritance change
Murphy contrasted the budget’s touted €420 payment to new parents with what he described as a far larger benefit from the inheritance threshold change. He said the new measure will, in effect, give about €21,450 to the wealthiest 3% of households and argued the vast majority of people will never be impacted by inheritance tax.
Research and figures cited
He referenced the CSO study Intergenerational Transfer of Wealth 2020, noting that 30% of households have ever received an inheritance and that the average inheritance among that group is €80,000. Murphy also cited Barry Roantree’s analysis showing roughly 3% of households would exceed the old threshold and therefore gain from the change.
Effects on children and families
Murphy highlighted social consequences in the same period, pointing to 4,500 children growing up in hotels and emergency accommodation and saying one in ten families use food banks. He noted that one in three families say they must cut back on meals so children can eat properly, and argued the inheritance change is being made while many struggle to get by.
Political critique and attention
He accused Fianna Gael and Fianna Fáil of using the issue to suggest ordinary people are affected by inheritance tax and called the measure class-based, benefiting a small number of the richest households. Murphy said the policy has not received sufficient attention and described the decision as scandalous.
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Thanks a lot. We had a budget that trumpeted the fact that it's giving a so-called baby boost to new parents, children of 420 euros. That's it. Won't go very far. And now before midnight, in effect from tomorrow morning, we've got a measure which is going to give a very substantial baby boost to the wealthiest 3% of households worth 21,450 euros. It is one of the great tricks of Fianna Gael and Fianna Fáil to try to pretend that ordinary people are impacted by inheritance tax. The vast, vast, vast majority of people are not, will never be in their life. There's actually a very good research done by the CSO, it's called Intergenerational Transfer of Wealth 2020. And what they found is that 30% of households have received an inheritance at some stage in their life. Only 30%, so less than one in three. Two-thirds of households will never get a substantial inheritance at all. Of that one-third, which will tend to be the richest one-third, the average inheritance that they get is 80,000 euros, coming nowhere close to the existing threshold. Barry Roantree looked into the figures in more detail and discovered that about 3% of households would go over the old threshold. So this is a tax break, a substantial tax break, for some of the richest people in the country. That's the reality. Yeah, it's not just as pure as the richest 3% in the country, because it's impacted by how many children there are and so on. That's true. But basically you have a tax break for the richest people in the country. That's at a time when we have thousands of children, 4,500 children growing up in hotels and emergency accommodation that are potentially going to be impacted for their entire life on that. That's when we have one in ten families driven to use food banks in order to be able to feed their kids. When one in three families say that they have to cut back on meals to ensure that the kids can eat properly. And yet we have a government that wants to ensure that children of some of the richest families in the country can get a tax break of another 21,450 euros. It is really, really scandalous. It hasn't got enough attention, I think, and the truth, the reality of the fact of just what a class-based measure this is, the small numbers of people that it benefits, hasn't, I think, been the focus of enough discussion. I think it really is scandalous that the government is making this decision at a time when so many people struggle to get by. Thank you, Deputy. Now, I've quite a number of deputies.
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