Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I will have to get a full briefing on that across the country. It is not unreasonable that people who are seeking support from the taxpayer pay their contribution to the tax. This would not have arisen had a campaign not been launched not to pay the charge. It is a condition of the memorandum of understanding with the troika, upon whom we depend to get the money to run the education system, that we had to introduce a property charge by a particular date.

The only way we could do it was to introduce a flat rate charge for one year. It is unfair and I know it is unfair but an awful lot of taxes are unfair. A millionaire and an unemployed person must pay the same price for a pint and there are a lot of taxes like that.