Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)

Deputy Devins stated that nobody likes paying tax, but we have to pay it to fund government. People are browned off paying additional tax to fund this Government. Nobody minds paying his fair share, if he sees results. It is not that long ago since I sat across the floor from this Minister and spoke about services on the ground. People are not seeing results on the ground and that is why they do not like paying tax. Even if one paid twice the level of tax, one would not see any difference. Unless we guarantee improvements and give value for money, we cannot look for higher taxes.

It is wrong for a Government to increase the amount of tax being raised for no real specific reason, except for the fact that it has the power to do so and needs to fund the terrible lack of planning and a total mismanagement of funds in the past number of years. It is wrong and as a Member, I must oppose it. I cannot agree to the Bill.

If I thought the money raised would fix the potholes throughout the country and improve the roads by making them safer, I might support it, but there is no guarantee of that. Last year we were told that increases in motor taxation would be ring-fenced and result in increased expenditure on roads. It did not happen. In County Meath the increase in the roads grant did not match inflation. How can I believe that this additional taxation will improved matters on the ground? I do not believe it, however much I would like to. Based on last year's commitments, I cannot.

Apart from a basic income tax level, all tax takes should be optional. If one uses a facility or a service, one should pay for it or lose the use of the facility or service. It should be policy that the user pays. Any other policy, as this Government has proved, brings about a scrappy system of government, such as the one we have, where over-spends occur safe in the knowledge that a stroke of a pen, or any other type of stroke, can and will gain more revenue for the Government. There is no encouragement to save money, because nobody is going to stop the Government raising more taxes.

A real increase in the amount being raised in motor taxation without a definite reason for doing so cannot be justified and the same can be said about increasing taxation involving motor vehicles, especially when there is no guarantee of achieved results. The Government is increasing a form of taxation that people in the modern age have no choice but to pay. It is the same as putting a gun to one's head while a greedy hand is being slipped into one's pockets. It is State-backed extortion.

People should not be over-penalised for doing what they have to do, in this case to drive to and from work. It is bad enough that commuters are forced to drive for four or five hours each day just to get to work but to impose extra charges on them for the privilege is crazy. It is no wonder people are fed up with this country. If a citizen is not to become a burden on the coffers of the State, he or she must work. This Bill penalises people for going to work. It is a work tax.

To add insult to injury, the Government has implemented policies to keep this vicious circle going through bad planning. Houses are located away from workplaces and factories. There are vast, stand alone areas with no integration of home, work and play areas. Vast estates have been built in such a way that if one were to consider providing an underground or overground rail network in the future, its design would resemble the sewing on a patchwork quilt or the Red Cow disaster on an even bigger scale. County Meath is a prime example. Thousands of houses have been built in Ratoath, Ashbourne, Dunboyne, Navan, Kells and Moynalty. However, no jobs followed the thousands of houses, only thousands of people. The result is that people must commute to their jobs. This is bad planning and bad Government and has resulted in the need for more taxes just to try to maintain the roads at a half decent standard, not to mind fund new modes of transport.

No definite policy exists for building in such a way that, with a ruler on a map, a straight line could be drawn to enable public transport to be built or operated efficiently near all housing schemes and industrial areas. Have we not learned anything from past mistakes in planning? We have not. Now, the Government intends to centralise the health service, to make regional hospitals into major centres of excellence and to threaten hospitals such as the one in my home town of Navan. People are being forced to travel 20 miles to Drogheda and 30 miles to Cavan for appointments, simple check-ups and treatment for minor injuries. However, there is a hospital more or less beside them which they cannot use. We will continue to force more people back onto the roads. It is crazy. Nevertheless, we still zone land and build houses in the greater Dublin region and beyond but no jobs are following them. We have not learned.

Try getting from Coole in Westmeath or Moynalty in Meath to Dublin without a car to visit somebody in hospital. One would have to be on holiday pay to attempt that. This Government's refusal to invest properly in public transport, despite taking billions in taxation from the transport sector, is a disgrace and is choking the quality of life in this country. I am referring to proper investment in rail and quality roads which one will not have to pay a tariff to use. Any decent road in this country is tolled. Motorists pay a fortune to use them. The lorries do not use them but continue to break up the other roads. Where does the toll go? I could accept it if the toll returned to the State's coffers to pay for the building and repair of more roads. However, it does not return to the State. It goes into the coffers of private companies or across the water to provide a nice lifestyle for somebody else. Again, this is bad policy, like investing pension money in foreign exchanges and so forth and, probably, losing more money by doing so. Policies implemented by the Departments do not yield value for money and each time the Government loses money or gets bad value, it demands more tax from the people. The attitude is: "You will sort out our problem". That is not good enough; it is not good Government.

What is the tax money for? Will it be blown on the few over-priced projects which are supposed to start sometime in the next year or so even though traffic cones are used to mark the biggest potholes in County Meath? When I was a young fellow I often made signs to mark the potholes outside our house. I would get a piece of wood and a stick, paint the words "Gone Fishing" or "Fishing" on it and stick it in the pothole. I hoped it might lead to the pothole being repaired. It was long before I became involved in politics; I was only about ten years old. Generally, the pothole was fixed because it had been highlighted. A few years later, people started to spray yellow lines around potholes to highlight them and eventually they might be fixed. Green paint is used now. The latest practice, however, is to plonk red and white cones in the middle of these holes. They fit quite nicely. This happens in other counties as well as Meath and often the cones are put there by council staff in an effort to highlight the danger. This is pathetic, yet the Government is still seeking more tax to spend on the roads.

The Government should get proper value for the money it has already and stop looking for more. If it does not wish to take my advice, perhaps the local election results will give this Department a wake up call. The people of Ireland have given enough money to dysfunctional Departments such as the Department of Finance, Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Transport. Given this country's lack of an integrated transport policy, the car is as important to life as the air we breathe, so how can the Department justify imposing more tax on it? It is madness. To a working man or woman the car is part of the family, just like the van or a lorry is to a business person, and just as if he or she were to lose an arm, leg or eye, the effect of any changes to the family vehicle is as dramatic. Every Member of the House knows this.

It is wrong and a great shame that the car has become such a vital organ for living in Ireland. It is worse to add insult to that by imposing charges on people so they can continue to drive. This is where Government policy makes no sense. This Government treats the motoring public like a soft target to be hit by more tax at will. The Government encouraged the use of the car above other methods of transport, such as rail, bus and bicycle, and then taxed the people it encouraged to buy and use these cars. How can this be right? If Members of the House did their job properly, they would be considering a law to stop a Government doing this rather than a law endorsing this policy. Forcing people, as a result of bad planning, into a tax trap should be outlawed or certain things should be exempt from tax. If an alternative exists and one makes the personal choice to use the car, one should pay. It is the car and the petrol used in the car that have fuelled the lifestyle we enjoy. The Government should leave them alone.

The Government should drop the demand for this tax, not increase the tax. Members of this House, like the people we represent, have been forced by the Government over many years to become car junkies. I resent the fact that due to an increase in taxation, I, like many others, will have to pay more for the habit I cannot quit. I cannot leave my car at home and do my job. That is the failure of this Government. I live in a town just 34 miles from this House and I should be able to do my job without using the car but I cannot. Would even this Minister for Finance go so far as to put a tax on people's arms, eyes or legs? I doubt it and I hope I have not given him any ideas. How can this Government, as if it did not matter, take a figure out of the air and increase the car tax and registration fee by that amount? Stop this madness before permanent harm is done.

The Minister spoke about the money that was spent on roads and so forth. I must be living on a different planet. Last year, I heard this money would be ring-fenced. The money Meath County Council received did not match inflation. The population in Navan town is approximately 25,000 and there are thousands more houses in the surrounding area. Councillors squabbled over €15,000 to €20,000 to be spent on maintenance and to fix and repair county and non-national roads. That is just to keep the roads safe. That is terrible. We are not getting value for money. I do not see any of the tax that is collected coming to Meath. There is talk that this money will go to the local government fund and it will be topped up by the Exchequer. That money is composed of other tax; it is our money as well. The Minister talks about the fund as if it will come from somewhere else but it is just more tax revenue. The money is all going into the same pot but we are not getting value for it.

The Minister said the local government fund is available to complement other income sources such as specific State grants, commercial rates and so forth. Let us take County Meath as an example. As a result of Government policy and the lack of jobs, the county's commercial rate is between €9 million and €11 million. Other councils' increases in 2003 were €9 million or €11 million. Fingal County Council collects approximately €70 million in rates. There is a big difference. If Government policy leads to a county such as Meath missing out on money yet causes extra problems for that county, something is wrong. It is not fair.

There is much talk about the increases in budgets over the years and there is constant comparison with how things were in 1997. I did my leaving certificate in 1997. The country has changed dramatically since then and I am fed up to the teeth of hearing Minister after Minister comparing like with unlike, that is, the figures for 2004 with those for 1997. It was a different generation and a different millennium.

I could say a great deal more on this subject. The money is not there and it is a joke to keep saying it is. It has been said that the money raised has increased and that we will get more out of it. This money will not even repair the roads we have at the moment and certainly will not build any new roads in our towns. In fact, we are bringing in development levies on new houses to build any new roads or bridges required in them. It is one more tax, another hidden tax. It is not income tax because our taxes are still low but it is a disgrace.

This money will not widen the roads to make them safer. It will not remove bends or humps. Filling in potholes and building a few new roads is not enough. We need to put more money into roads because traffic has increased on all of them. To restore roads to what they were ten or 15 years ago is not good enough. We need better roads and in view of this it is a disgrace to clap ourselves on the back for a small increase in money spent on them. I am sure the Minister of State would probably agree with me except he must stick to his script. He knows the amount raised is not enough and that much more is required.

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