Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tá mé buíoch don Seanadóir Byrne as ucht a chuid ama a roinnt liom. This property tax is simply coming at the wrong time. It is not taking into consideration the ability of individuals to pay. Members have spoken about those who paid stamp duty, particularly over the past ten years. Many people paid substantial sums over the past ten years amounting to ¤5 billion in total. People also paid local authority service charges up to ¤20,000 and they are not being taken into account. When 25% of all mortgage holders in the country are struggling to some extent to meet their mortgage repayments, it is madness to bring in a property tax. The troika is not forcing us to do is, despite what has been said. We can substitute one budgetary measure for another as long as we make meet the figure of ¤3.5 billion. The troika has continually made the point in meetings with Fianna Fáil.

I refer to the proposed exemptions. Fianna Fáil is totally opposed to the legislation as currently formulated because it will drive into poverty those with property and those struggling in the middle-income brackets. I heard the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, say handing over powers to the Revenue Commissioner would be efficient. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, said the same thing in the Dáil. It will effectively criminalise people. Fines are included in the Bill. The Revenue Commissioners have sweeping powers and will now be given those sweeping powers over homeowners and families. That will cause mayhem and havoc, particularly if a young person has a taxi business and seeks a tax clearance certificate to renew a licence. If the person has not paid the property tax and is incurring interest, the person will effectively be out of a job.

I have read the exemptions but it is not clear from the legislation or the explanatory memorandum whether NAMA properties are exempt. I assume they are not exempt as it would be crazy if NAMA properties were exempt while people in council houses must pay the tax.

Lifting moneys out of social welfare payments and payments from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is wrong. We spoke earlier about the Social Welfare Bill. This measure will cut social welfare payments further because it penalises people in receipt of them. An example concerns a four-bedroomed property sold at auction in a prime location in County Donegal for ¤40,000. What happens if owners living on the same street believe the sale value is ¤40,000 but Revenue catches up in five or six years' time, when the market recovers, and the owners are caught for additional taxation measures?

We must be clear where this is going. This will cause more difficulty than the Government anticipates. It will drive the property market into decline and have irrefutable consequences for the recovery of the country. I know that from speaking to people in the property business and people living in ordinary family homes. It is the wrong time for the measure.