Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

The Minister of State claimed local authority tenants would be excluded from the household charge. The majority buy their houses by way of mortgage because they have little choice with, for example, 100,000 on local authority housing waiting lists. People have no choice but to house themselves in that way.

I refer to householders who have paid stamp duty. The late Brian Lenihan said on several occasions that we have a property tax called stamp duty. People who bought at the height of the boom were given some welcome relief in the budget but now a charge will be put on the same people the Government has identified as vulnerable. They have paid tens of thousands of euro in stamp duty, which is a property tax, in many cases at inflated rates because house prices were inflated. They should be excluded because they essentially own a debt. They do not own property. The EU-IMF programme says that Ireland will introduce a property tax. What property do these people have? I wish somebody would answer that. They do not have a tangible asset that could be called a property.

The idea that a central fund would make local authorities more accountable is nonsense. People will ask what they are getting in return for this charge. They will experience a reducing level of service at the same time they are asked to pay this. The State has failed to reform local government. I have said on numerous occasions that its structures should be radically reformed. We have a local government administration system rather than a local government system. Its funding is lopsided. The needs and resources model was used to allocate money and it took no account, for example, of population growth. Entire tracts of the State will be left with insufficient services because they have experienced population growth without a corresponding expansion in the services provided.

Everybody knows the €100 charge is an introductory offer. The same argument was used regarding the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act 1983 and that is one of the reasons people will resist the charge.

With regard to NAMA estates, a differentiation has been made between ghost estates owned by NAMA and those that are not in NAMA. People living on ghost estates may well not be on the list of those who will be exempted and that needs to be clarified. The vast majority of people will be subject to this property tax, which is most unfair. No attention is paid to the ability of an individual to pay the charge.

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