Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ministers for their presentations. My point is about the property tax. In some ways our discussion is surreal. We are discussing the framing of the budget for 2013 but we have no figure for the first half of the year. We can only assume that the tax will continue to be €100 per house for eligible households. A collection rate of 100% will garner €80 million as opposed to €160 million for the full year. We have been informed that the new house tax will begin on 1 July - it has been referred to as a property tax. We are discussing this tax but we have no indication of what the rate of the tax will be. The troika and Ministers have said it is expected to bring in €1 billion a year. I ask the Minister to give some indication of what his Department hopes to realise from the new house tax - property tax - from 1 July to the end of December 2013. We are discussing the budgetary process. However, if we do not know what money is available and where it is coming from it is very difficult to have a realistic discussion.