Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the many design flaws of the local property tax is the 4% annual interest charge for people who seek the deferral and it always seemed to me to be one of the most punitive elements of the legislation. We have a system where the State recognises there are people who simply cannot afford the tax. We have a mechanism for deferring that tax and yet we charge them a 4% annually accruing interest charge. If somebody is on a very low income, for example, a pensioner who might be asset rich but income poor, and has a deferral over a long period of time, the charge eventually put on their house is not only the LPT, which is a separate day's argument, but the accruing 4% annual interest charge. It always seemed to me to be one of the most punitive and ill-thought-out elements of it. Was any consideration given to removing that when the Minister of State was dealing with the broader substantive legislative amendment he has tabled here? It seems to me this would have been the ideal time to remove that inequitable element of the original legislation.