An Oireachtas unit has called on the Government to tax ballooning Irish household wealth in Budget 2025 to counterbalance the State’s reliance on corporation and income tax receipts, the Sunday Times reports.
The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), which provides independent budgetary analysis to members of the Dáil and Seanad, noted in a recent report that while household wealth in the Republic has surged to more €1.1 trillion in recent times, the tax yield from wealthier households remains quite small.
“Tax revenues in Ireland are substantial but highly concentrated on income tax and corporation tax receipts from a relatively small number of payers”, it said. Against this backdrop, the PBO warned that it is important for the State to “adequately and fairly tax wealth” to correct “market distortions” caused by the tax system as currently constituted.
The paper reports that the PBO’s advice flies in the face of the Coalition’s stated intention to cut inheritance tax in Budget 2025 next month.
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Former McKillen partner starts new venture after Press Up exit
In another big blow to Paddy McKillen Jnr’s hospitality empire, the executive who helped build the Press Up group into an industry behemoth has left the business and is now setting up a new company with Denis O’Brien’s nephew Emmett O’Neill.
The Business Post reports that Matt Ryan, who has “stepped back” from the Press Up management team, is setting up an environmental services company with Mr O’Neill, the founder of Smiles Dental and former boss at Topaz.
Mr Ryan still maintains a stake in the Isle of Man-registered company that controls a large swathe of the Press Up empire, the paper reports.
However, his departure from the executive team follows a period of upheaval at Press Up after London-based investor Cheyne Capital agreed to take a majority stake in the troubled group earlier this year.
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Capreit vows to never invest in Ireland again
Also in the Sunday Times, the chief executive of the Canadian company responsible for founding Ires Reit – the State’s largest corporate landlord – has vowed never to invest in the Republic again, blaming the “untrustworthy environment” around the residential rental sector.
Mark Kenney, whose company Capreit sold its stake in Ires earlier this year, said the Government’s rent cap policy has pushed up the cost of apartments and is chasing away international capital.
“Ireland made it very clear it does not want rental,” Mr Kenney told the paper. “We would never look at Ireland again.”
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Airport cap could face European legal challenge, says DAA
Meanwhile, the State-owned company that operates Dublin Airport has warned local politicians that the 32 million passenger-a-year cap imposed on it by An Bord Pleanála could be referred to the European courts, the Sunday Independent reports.
DAA, which has applied to Fingal County Council to have the cap lifted to 40 million passengers, has also taken a case against the Irish Aviation Authority to the High Court, arguing the airport operator itself does not have the authority to stop airlines using slots or passengers boarding planes if the cap is breached.
In a meeting with local politicians, DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs said the company’s High Court case could be referred to European courts after the Dutch supreme court overturned a similar cap at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam.
“We are in unchartered [sic] legal waters both in here and, I believe, in Europe,” Mr Jacobs said.
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