Only Hong Kong, Cyprus, Switzerland and Singapore have more billionaires per capita than Ireland.
Ahead of the start of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Oxfam has released a report highlighting how “out of control” financial inequality has become across the world.
Interestingly, the report, titled Time To Care, found that Ireland now has the fifth largest number of billionaires per capita in the world, a disproportionately high amount for a country with Ireland’s population.
Commenting on the report, Jim Clarken, CEO of Oxfam Ireland, claimed that a sexist economy exists around the globe, saying: “Sexist economies are fuelling the inequality crisis – enabling a wealthy elite to accumulate vast fortunes at the expense of ordinary people.
“Our upside-down economic system deepens inequality by chronically undervaluing care work – usually done by women and girls.”
As well as this, the report found that the 22 richest men in the world have more wealth than every single woman in Africa combined and that the world’s 2,153 billionaires now have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60% of the world’s population.
Oxfam claims that getting the richest one percent of the world’s population to pay just 0.5 percent extra tax on their wealth over the next 10 years would equal the investment needed to create 117 million jobs in education and health and in industries catering for childcare and the elderly.
You can read Oxfam’s billionaire report in full here.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste Simon Coveney and Minister for Finance Paschal Donohue had been scheduled to represent the Irish government at the World Economic Forum in Davos but will be absent due to the upcoming General Election; it is the first time there will be no Irish presence at the forum since 2011.
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