Last year the 450 richest people in Ireland paid an average of $1 million in taxes. This is compared to the $18.8 million paid in taxes by Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary alone in 2003.

The amount of tax being collected from the super wealthy in Ireland is now only about half of the bills seen during the Celtic Tiger days.

In 2007 the high-wealth unit of the Revenue Commissioners of Ireland collected $733 million in taxes. Last year they collected only $455 million.

This decrease is blamed by the stalemate in the property market in Ireland. In 2007 $211.5 million of the revenue collected was capital gains tax collected from the super rich. This is eight times the amount collected in 2010.