Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I am conscious that the witnesses were not involved in discussions on the possibility of the broadcasting charge being collected by Revenue but are they aware of any restriction to such a charge being collected by Revenue rather than An Post? During consideration of this issue by the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, of which I am a member, reference was made to this not being possible because this fee is a charge rather than a tax. Are there any restrictions on Revenue collecting this charge if that is what the Minister directs?

As a Dublin Deputy I am concerned about the statistics which indicate that 29% of all households in the State account for 38% of local property tax receipts. Given that price increases in Dublin are significantly higher than elsewhere it could well be the case that 50% of the tax will come from Dublin households. There is in equity issue here because typically a lot of those properties would be small and different in character to houses elsewhere in the country. Have the Revenue Commissioners undertaken any work on the alternative property tax collection mechanism, which would be based on site value? I recall I heard a Minister say that this option is being reviewed.

Has the work on title and the land ownership register that I know was started a number of years ago been completed, so that we have full understanding of who owns what property, which would facilitate the introduction of a site value tax? Have any of the officials here done any background work on that as an alternative mechanism? That is an alternative to a situation where Dublin prices would continue to rise and property tax would be very heavily skewed towards the capital, in a way that certainly would have equity issues. In particular, someone in a very small, cramped apartment might pay a multiple of the amount paid by someone in a very large property, with very large costs to the State in providing social and other services. There is an equity issue if we just continue with the current system.