Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We shall agree to disagree. I am too young to remember what was said when rates were abolished, but I have been told that when they were abolished - no question but that it was a populist move - a commitment was made to the electorate that VAT increases that subsequently followed would cover that move. VAT increased afterwards and people felt they paid. However, since then many other taxes have been added. A commitment was made to people at the time that they would not be asked to pay again.

The Minister of State did not respond to my point. He and all of his spokespeople said that we should pay this charge, even if we do not like it, because we need to fund local services. The fact is that the Government has not increased the funding for local services, but has cut it. For many of the services that we used to get from paying taxes, we now have to pay charges anyway. There are charges for parking, for going into hospitals, increased rates, future charges for water and so on. People genuinely ask "What the hell are we paying for, because we have to pay charges anyway?" That is legitimate anger at double taxation.