Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are continuing with social pillar groups and business pillar groups presentations to the committee. I welcome Dr. Seán Healy from Social Justice Ireland and Mr. Tom McDonnell from TASC and thank them for appearing before the committee. Rather than go into the budgetary submissions and give full presentations on them, it is an opportunity for the delegates to identify one or two points the would wish to raise with committee members and also it is an opportunity for members to tease out some of the concepts in the proposal in greater detail. I welcome you to the committee. I will begin by asking Dr. Seán Healy about his proposal on property tax, where he stated that he is in favour of the site valuation model as opposed to the valuation model. There are arguments for and against this, one of which is that the site valuation model does not provide the type of gatekeeping that a true valuation model would have. For example, in the early 1990s if a person was earning €35,000 his or her house would, perhaps, have been worth €50,000. People saw their house values increase to €200,000 to €300,000 but their salary did not increase with it. There would have been an immediate question as to the level of taxation on people's property not meeting that of their income. I would like to hear more on that issue.

The universal pension system was also mentioned. Perhaps Dr. Healy would elaborate his views on that issue.

Mr. Tom McDonnell proposes an 0.35% tax on residential property. How did he arrive at that rate? How does he see it applying to citizens? Does he propose that it apply to all citizens, regardless of annual income and household income?