Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Councillor McGinley, who I know well. I acknowledge his work on this issue.

I have never made a secret of the fact that I am in favour of a local council tax. We need to be clear and we need to be honest. Local services must be paid for and somebody has to pay for them. I am of the view that everybody must pay some percentage. We are aware that social housing tenants pay no local property tax at any rate. I do not believe that this is correct or fair. I do not suggest that they should pay the same, but it should be related to a person's income and situation. If we are to reform the local property tax we need to call it what it is; it is a council tax.

To be an effective and fair council tax, 100% of it should be retained by the local authorities. It should be no less than that. According to the figures in the report to which Councillor McGinley referred, people were promised additional services. That is true, but we have not seen them. He mentioned that Dublin City Council's net benefit from the local property tax was €4 million in the context of a €900 million budget and the collection of €80 million in LPT per annum. In effect, just 5% of the moneys paid by Dublin householders has been made available to fund new services in Dublin. That tells its own story.

I go back to the tax. It is important to carry out a review. We have heard suggestions in the media in the last week that the Government is considering reviewing this. Politicians are in the business of politics and they are conscious of local elections next year. There is a great deal of resistance to paying any tax. No one likes paying taxes. While there is a high rate of compliance with the tax because Revenue collects it, that compliance would not be there if the local authority were collecting it. Where Revenue comes on heavily and people receive a brown envelope with a harp on it referring to money owed, people comply. That is the reality of it.

Where are we going from here? There are three things. I refer to recommendations Nos. 8 to 10, inclusive, of the Thornhill review, in particular recommendation No. 9. Recommendation No. 9 states that, over the medium term, the Government should consider moving to a system whereby local authorities retain 100% of the LPT revenue raised in their areas. That is very important. I congratulate PMCA Economic Consulting for its submission, which was a very comprehensive one. It refers to a gradual transition from a local property tax to a council local tax, or CLT. That is the model. If we are going to have proper reform of local government, greater powers must be devolved to city and county councillors. They need to determine how this money is spent and they must be accountable to the people for it. I cited to some people before I came to the meeting that in the borough of Greenwich in the greater London area residents receive a pie chart setting out how their council taxes are paid. Steps are taken in the case of a shortfall. For example, library services were closed for four Saturdays last December because they were over-budget. That is communicated to the electorate. It was stated that the library service was shut for four Saturdays to bring it back into line with its budget. That is responsible budgeting and responsible local government.

I welcome this as the beginning of a debate. I am not sure we will see any reform in the next 12 months given the political sensitivities around local government elections and the numbers game in Leinster House. However, we need to have a public conversation and consultation. We need public engagement. It is right and proper to have a local council tax and we should not apologise for that. People have to be given assurances, however, and they must see services provided. I had a look only today at the literature that was originally put through my door saying there would be new swimming pools, new libraries, new beaches and new community centres, etc., as a result of this tax. There was a huge PR exercise around this tax, but none of that has happened and people are disappointed. Everyone must pay pro rataor on the basis of their incomes. They should pay something, including those who live in local authority or housing association houses. We need greater accountability from local authorities and they must be able to make real decisions. Where local authorities are permitted to reduce their tax by 15%, they will do it. If they could reduce it by 50%, they would do that too. As such, we have to make the connection between this tax and local government services. Elected members must be able to hold their local authority executive to account for the spending of this money and engage publicly and regularly with communities as to where it is going.