Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)

I am sharing with Deputy Upton.

Deputy Gilmore made the interesting point that domestic rates were abolished in 1977. Now we are getting rates back under another name, an imposition in the form of management charges for housing estates and apartment blocks. I will not go into the nitty gritty of this because Deputy Upton has some interesting cases to reveal on this matter and I will not trespass on her ground. The charges are paid to private management companies often owned or controlled by the same developers who have crucified young people and put them to the pin of their collars to pay for houses.

Deputy Gilmore brought a Bill before the House on 8 March 2005 which was dear to the Labour Party. It might not go down so well with big supporters in the tent. We are not in a tent but rely on the €2 or €5 that people give us at the door of the local pub or for raffle tickets. The number of unfinished housing estates across this country is a scandal. Builders leave homes surrounded by rubble, litter and the remains of their work and do not complete essential aspects of the plans, such as footpaths and play areas. Young people get into hock to pay for those services but receive nothing. Not satisfied with the flesh off their bones the builders want the bone as well. I agree with Deputy Joe Higgins that it is a rush to privatisation and it is about time it was stopped.

I warn Members that in a month, people coming to Dublin from Mullingar and the midlands to work will pay €25 a week for the privilege of travelling on the road. If they have to go to the West Link it will cost €2,000 per year to line the pockets of the very wealthy. It is part of right-wing ideology to make people pay for everything regardless of whether they have the means. So much for Sustaining Progress.

Perhaps the workers will rebel and demand a decent wage. The Government will impose the wages to be paid by the employers and there will be a rebellion outside Kinnegad. What if somebody, rushing with a child from a hospital incomplete since 1997 and having to get to Dublin is required to pay a toll as well?

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