Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important to introduce a property tax. We must put our taxation system on a more sustainable footing. The ravages of the 2000s were caused in part by the overdependency of the Exchequer on the market value of property and income from stamp duty and VAT payments on houses. We now find ourselves with a deficit we are making progress to close but which continues to cause an enormous burden on many fronts.

I would like to see more transparency in the amount of tax to be collected. There will be many questions from individual home owners. I represent a city constituency and the case has been made by many speakers for Dublin. I recognise that as a city, Cork has services which one would not have elsewhere but many of them are paid for by taxpayers, the bulk of whom are city dwellers. We are told that this is a local property tax, the proceeds of which will be spent locally. It will be based on market value. More tax will be collected in areas where properties have a higher market value which means citizens will expect more services to be provided locally. We need transparency to ensure that happens. I agree that a certain proportion should be moved across the country to support local authorities which are not able to collect enough tax to match their needs. The fact that the bulk of the tax will be collected in areas with high property values means individuals paying it will want to see how much money is being returned to their individual authority and how much is being spent locally. Elderly people who find themselves in a house whose value has increased because of services which have been provided in the area will never actually realise that value. They will have to pay a property tax based on that market value.

I support the implementation of a property tax which gets away from the focus on income. We need to reduce the burden on income tax and I commend the Government for refraining from increases in income tax. We must expand the tax base to ensure that, going forward, we have a more sustainable position.