David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I did not interrupt anyone. I sat here and listened to all other Senators but other Members like to interrupt when Sinn Féin Members take to their feet because they do not like what we have to say. I ask that other Senators in the Chamber give me some respect and allow me to make the points I am allowed to make. I have four minutes to make my contribution.

I am amazed Senator Thomas Byrne can walk into the Chamber with a brass neck and say he was against the property tax when his party signed the country up to a property tax with the troika under the national recovery plan, the infamous four-year plan. This is the same Senator from the same party that introduced the universal social charge and four tough, gruelling austerity budgets that had a deep impact on many working families. The same party threw away the sovereignty of the State and brought about massive unemployment, with hundreds of thousands of young people scattered across the globe, in America and in Australia. Hundreds of thousands of people are in negative equity and people cannot put food on the table or heating oil in their tanks. People are really struggling. All of the evidence points to more people living in poverty today than two, four or six years ago. Senator Thomas Byrne and the Fianna Fáil Party must take full responsibility for all of that because he was a cheerleader for all of those policies and those in government who were putting the policies in place.

Labour Party and Fine Gael Senators must also take responsibility for the fact that poverty and levels of deprivation have increased. Senator Maurice Cummins talked about dishonesty. I challenge him to a public debate in Waterford on the issue at a time of his choosing. If he wants to throw mud and engage in a debate on the issue of the property tax, I challenge him to a proper debate. Let us remind ourselves of what Fine Gael said in the election manifesto. They were elected on the basis of what they put to the people of the country in their manifesto. I will read directly from it, on page 59 under the local government funding heading: ?Fianna Fáil?s proposal, now endorsed by the Labour Party, to introduce by 2014 an annual, recurring residential property tax on the family home is unfair.? I agree it is unfair. Before the election, Fine Gael felt it was unfair and now the party seems to think it is fair.

The Leader of the Seanad said it is a tax on assets. It is not a tax on assets, it is a tax on the family home. Many assets are not being taxed. When Deputy Enda Kenny was asked about a property tax as the Leader of the Opposition in the Dáil, the record of the Dáil shows he said:

It is morally unjust and unfair to tax a person's home, and by so doing grind him into the ground. Indeed in cases it could probably be unconstitutional. [...] It reminds me of a vampire tax in that it drives a stake through the heart of home ownership, through enthusiasm and initiative, and sucks the life blood of people who want to own their own home and better their position.

I agree with the Taoiseach that it is a vampire tax that will suck the lifeblood out of communities. It will suck the lifeblood out of families who are really struggling. The Minister of State is sitting there but does not understand what it is like for most families. He does not understand how difficult it is for people to make tough decisions about whether to pay the electricity bill, which many more people are finding it difficult to do, to put oil in the heating tank, to pay the gas bill, get groceries to put food on the table or send their children to primary and secondary school. The Minister of State is sitting there with an empty expression on his face because he lives in a bubble with his inflated salary. He has no idea whatsoever what it is like for those families.