In Politics by Numbers, broadcaster, author and spreadsheet stan Gavan Reilly takes a data deep dive into a political point of the week.

THE REGULAR DEBATE around inheritance tax, and whether it should be reformed to be less punitive on childless adults, is a good example of the power of the status quo.

Why should a child be able to inherit €400,000 tax-free from their father, but only €40,000 if it comes from an uncle? What if the uncle had experienced infertility, didn’t want children of their own, or simply never met the right person to start a family with?

Why should the State get a bigger cut of the uncle’s estate simply because their next-of-kin was born to someone else? Should the tax paid by a child on their inheritance be influenced by which adult changed their nappies, or brought them to more soft play centres?

If you were designing a tax system on a blank sheet of paper you might consider the current system to be unfair – but if you were responsible for running Ireland’s tax system today, you could find it hard to unpick and reform.

The reason is that once a tax has started to bring in a steady and significant income, it’s harder to forego that revenue and introduce something that you might consider objectively fairer. Inheritance taxes in Ireland yield somewhere between €850 million and €1 billion a year – so while there is almost universal consensus that the status quo could be fairer, it’s harder to make do without the cash it brings in.

The power of the status quo

I draw this analogy because I think it’s a useful illustration of........

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