Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have also put my name to this amendment. Deputy Fitzmaurice tried on budget night to have the measure postponed until the end of the year, and I supported him. Many people have been caught by this for various reasons. Some blame auctioneers or solicitors, or in some cases the banks where they could not secure the finance in time, and those people should be given a window to conclude the transaction. They had made a deal, shaken hands and spat on their palms. This measure was a double whammy for them. It was unexpected and in the spirit of goodwill and behaving honourably they should be allowed to complete the deal without this blow.

Deputy Fitzmaurice has outlined the funding. We want to support the small businessman or businesswoman and the small family farm. The iar-Thaoiseach came to Edgeworthstown and announced there was nothing he would not do - I said it was like the Four Roads to Glenamaddy - to rejuvenate rural Ireland. This budget measure is doing the exact opposite, it is a blow to every town and village. Anyone on this committee from a rural area - I mean everywhere beyond the Red Cow - will be familiar with these villages and towns. I travelled to one last week in County Mayo, where I saw one closed building after the next. My own town of Clonmel was once thriving, the biggest inland town in the country, and now the middle of the town is devastated. We are trying to get people back into the town and rejuvenate it. Then there is a housing crisis. This measure is an obstacle to both of these problems. We could solve much of the housing crisis, although not all of it, and get a living town once more while giving a break to entrepreneurs that they could buy a premises that has been closed for the last five or ten years if it did not reopen as a business premises; someone else might buy it and put accommodation above or at the back. Several small businesses that were in the middle of the process have contacted me. Some of them thought that the solicitors had completed the transaction but they had not, since one almost has to live with a solicitor to make them do what they are supposed to; the longer it goes on for them the better. This measure is meanspirited.

It is against the spirit of everything we say - so much for rural proofing. This is rural segregation. It is not that many of these family farmers wish to buy land, but they have no choice if they wish to stay in the production of milk, cereal or beef, especially given the vast amount of land required. It is different with poultry and other production. Farmers must try to expand their acreage - the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, should understand that given where he comes from - to stay in the game or even to stand still. That is especially the case with the onset of Brexit. A number of young farmers have been brave enough to invest hugely in dairying and I am worried about them. If they see some land they wish to buy, this will be a hammer blow from the Government. They are already being hammered by the vulture funds. We tend to think those vulture funds are abroad but there is a home grown vulture fund in my area of Tipperary. It is buying every morsel of grass or seedling that grows. It is a land grab by a very famous conglomerate. That conglomerate has much prowess in the horse racing industry, which we welcome, and provides much employment. However, it has amassed up to 17,000 acres by now.

I put a proposal to the Minister for Finance for a land tax on any farm over 750 acres. Being from Tipperary I know how emotive the words "land tax" are but we must do something to ensure the survival of rural Ireland and to keep the schools open and the families, churches, teams and playing fields there. We must keep the place alive, not shut it down behind gates. We have submitted this amendment because we must give some type of solace, not blindfold these business people, entrepreneurs and families, tie their hands behind their backs and let them be sucked up by the vulture funds and just tossed to hell or to Connacht. It is to hell or wherever now. The vulture funds are not being touched.

We were very careful with our figures, with 4% from €300,000 to €500,000 and 6% from €500,000. We are not trying to be all things to all people. It is for a specific group of people. The value of property will rise in towns, even if there is not much business. We are going to hunt all our entrepreneurs into this city where one cannot get a bed for a night, a parking space or anything else. The recent OECD report found that 53% of all economic activity is taking place in the capital city. It is 15% or 20% higher than the figure for any other capital city in Europe. We are in the middle of Brexit and all the announcements and pronouncements of what we are going to do, along with all the hashtags and God knows what else. The last Taoiseach never had to hashtag but went out himself to tell what he was going to do. People do not want lip service. They want tangible efforts and in this case to be left alone.

This hammer blow was totally unexpected, especially with all the talk about rural proofing. The words "rural proofing" should be deleted from the Government's vocabulary because there is nothing rural proofing about this measure.