Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I have two questions for the Minister. Before I pose them, I want to make it clear - the Minister is aware of this - that I am an opponent of this property tax. I believe that it is wrongly named and that it could be more accurately described as a tax on the family home. I have no issue with real property taxes such as, for example, a tax on the owners of multiple properties etc. This is a tax on the family home. I favour, not its reform or tweaking, but its abolition.

I will now pose a couple of questions in regard to what is under discussion today. My first question relates to pending increases in the property tax. I understand from the reports that approximately 36% of households will see their property tax increase in the next round and that a large majority of the increases will be on properties which move up one band and, therefore, a €90 increase and that a minority will be on properties which move up two bands and, therefore, a €180 increase. I am looking for as accurate as possible an indication from the Minister as to where these increases are likely to fall. Common sense would indicate that given that property prices have risen most rapidly in recent times in the larger urban areas, the increase in the property valuations and the skipping of bands will be concentrated in those areas and, therefore, the 36% of households that will experience an increase in their property tax bill are likely, although not exclusively, to be concentrated in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and the larger urban areas. There will be exceptions to that, but I am dealing with the general trend. The Minister might comment on that.

My second question is in regard to the finances of the local authorities. I was a member of a local authority for 12 years, three of which, 2013-2016, were years in which the local property tax was in situ. At that time, the local authority retained 80% of revenue, which it is proposed now to increase to 100%. The experience was that no local authority retained 80% of revenue. It may have done so technically but that was compensated for on the other side of the balance sheet by cuts in funding from central Government by a corresponding amount. What a local authority gained on the swings, it lost on the roundabout. I ask the Minister to give a commitment that that will not happen this time around and that for local authorities that gain extra funding there will be no corresponding cut in grants from central Government. In posing that question, I am not holding my breath in terms of the Minister's reply.