Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

Sinn Féin opposes the Government's household charge. We opposed the charge when it was first introduced last December and we continued to campaign against it. We believe the charge is unjust and unworkable. It will lead to financial crisis in local authorities and will bring further hardship to low and middle income families.

The charge is grossly unfair as it penalises those on low incomes. The millionaire will pay the same as pensioners and the Taoiseach will pay the same as lone parents, who have had their benefits cut.

My party believes that the household charge is a double tax and should be resisted and we continue to support those who resist it.

The household charge was introduced because the Government cut funding to local authorities. The funding was taken from the Local Government Fund and redirected for other purposes, such as bailing out the banks.

To raise the €160 million needed for local authorities, a charge of €100 was imposed on people's homes. It was a cheap and nasty move by the Government, which promised so much only nine months before it introduced this charge.

This, of course, led to a massive campaign against the charge. My party participated in peaceful pickets, protests and mass meetings the length and breadth of the State. Even today, six months on, and despite the bully-boy tactics, households still remain committed to overturning this charge.

Sinn Féin has taken a positive leadership role during the campaign against the household charge. We did not go for the populist rhetoric of simply demanding people should not pay and then leaving them high and dry. We felt it was not our role, as political activists and elected representatives, to tell neighbours or members of the public what to do, or to make promises that simply could not be fulfilled.

As a political party, we are not in a position to pay for court appearances or to contribute towards them, and others should not mislead the public on that. Instead, we clearly outlined to the public that we were absolutely committed to overturning the household charge and we would work with communities to bring pressure to bear on those TDs who voted for this charge and to ensure the heat of public anger would bear down on those TDs.

The introduction of this Bill is part of this campaign. TDs who voted for this charge must feel the consequences of their actions. This is particularly true of the Labour Party, which promised to defend working families and protect against welfare cuts, but which, unfortunately, has strayed away from the vision of Connolly only to become cheerleaders for the right-wing politics of Fine Gael.

To the Labour backbenchers I say the following: the public who elected them are sick to the teeth of hearing that things would be worse if they were not in government and the conscience of the Government. To be honest, for many thousands of families up and down the country, things could not be much worse. It could not be worse for families who have seen their loved ones emigrate, communities who see essential services closed down, and fathers and mothers who face a future of poverty for their children and long-term unemployment for themselves. Proud working families have been forced into accepting hand-outs and looking for charity from the likes of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to keep hunger from their children. To tell these people that things could be worse is a mockery.

The Government wants the public to pay three times for local government services. The public pays for the services provided by their local authority through their taxes. Households already have to pay for services including waste collection, call out charges for the fire brigade, septic tank charges and management fees, and soon water charges will be added to the list, and now the Government wants the same households to pay an added household charge.

I want to take the opportunity to nail some of the myths surrounding the payment of rates in the Six Counties - myself and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, addressed this today. As well he knows, Sinn Féin is in government in the North as part of a partnership Government. We are proud of our record in the Assembly, particularly in protecting those on low incomes and in expanding on services being provided by local authorities. As part of the reform of public administration, Sinn Féin is central to local government reform.

The facts are that in the North households pay rates, these rates have been frozen, at the proposal of Sinn Féin, with an average rate being £700; and there is a waiver scheme in place for those on low incomes.

It is also a fact that the rates cover a range of services, including refuse collection, fire services, septic tank de-sludging, school transport, school books and water supply. None of these services is provided by local authorities in this State.

It is also worth noting that there are no tolls on roads in the Six Counties and no water charges. Waste collection is a funding stream for local authorities as private companies pay local authorities to collect the waste because they see it as being valuable.

Politics is about making the right decision, not the easy one, and improving the quality of life for ordinary persons on low and middle incomes. Trading on empty truths does not pay bills, create jobs or strengthen communities.

Sinn Féin wants to approach the challenges that face our people with reason and analysis. Therefore, when we set ourselves the task of overturning the household charge, we approached it with solution-based alternatives.

At our recent Ard-Fheis, we launched a Back the Bill campaign to encourage the public to support the Bill to reverse the household charge. We are happy to have received support both of the Unite and Mandate trade unions, the Dublin Council of Trade Unions and a number of community groups and associations such as SPARK, which represents lone parents.

By introducing the Local Government (Household Charge) Repeal Bill 2012, Sinn Féin, with the support of Opposition and, hopefully, some Government TDs, aims to reverse the household charge and reimburse all those who have paid the charge.

In opposing this charge, Sinn Féin is also careful to put forward solutions. The Government could have made other choices. Funding and savings could have been made from one of the following options. It could have introduced a new third rate of tax only on income over €100,000 earned by individuals which, according to the figures we have obtained, would have brought in €410 million. It could have abolished group relief availed of by companies to transfer losses to profitable companies and thereby get a write-down of tax receipts, which would have raised €450 million. The Government could abolish legacy property reliefs, which would raise €341 million. They could easily cap all public servants' wages at €100,000 per annum, which would save €265 million. A 1% wealth tax would raise almost €900 million - less than one fifth of 1% would bring in more than the household charge.

Any one of the above would have raised more and covered the cost of local government services. Instead, the Government chose to dig deeper into the public's pockets, which have been dipped into in five austerity budgets where they have faced cuts in services, increased taxes and less wages in their pocket.

Sinn Féin would also call for the improved collection of commercial water rates. Currently, the collection rate is in the region of 52%, and that needs to be addressed.

There should be increased rates on banks. The banks should not pay the same rates, based on their location and square footage, as the sweetshop next door. They have a considerable turnover and should pay a higher rate.

In towns such as Portlaoise, where there is a significant number of State buildings, there should be rates levied on those State-owned buildings.

According to the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland, AMAI, there are other sources of funding that could be considered. The association put forward a number of options in the past. There are considerable Lotto receipts from every town and parish in the country and a percentage of those could be retained at local level to supplement the income of local authorities.

In other countries it is common for a percentage of revenue generated from value added tax to be retained locally.

In December 2011, Labour Party and Fine Gael Deputies faced a choice. While Sinn Féin put forward workable solutions in our pre-budget submission, the Government chose to take the walk of shame by supporting massive cuts in public expenditure and introducing new charges. All of this was done in the name of fiscal management and good housekeeping. It is clear, however, that those who made these decisions have not managed a household in many years. If they had, they would have made different decisions. The Government must understand that one cannot run a healthy household budget and keep people warm, fed and educated with an ever decreasing income and ever increasing expenditure.

Looking abroad one finds that councils in Denmark receive a portion of the corporation tax raised in their respective areas, while revenue from a local wealth tax and tax on natural resources that is levied in Norway is allocated to local authorities. In Spain, a percentage of a local tax on the development of land is allocated to local authorities. The Government had many alternatives to the household tax but chose the lazy, unfair option. By imposing the charge, it is forcing local authorities into a financial crisis, as evidenced by today's decision by Offaly County Council to curtail services. Councils have had their funding cut year after year by consecutive Governments and are now dependent on revenue from the household charge to fund essential services. This approach will not work because cuts to funding will affect people accessing public services. It was the Minister's decisions that brought about the current crisis in service delivery.

This Government has handed over billions to zombie banks and bondholders. Things could be different, however, and the Bill gives Deputies an opportunity to do the right thing, which all of us have been elected to do. Anyone with a social conscience knows that flat rate taxes such as the household charge are wrong. For this reason, I urge Labour Party Deputies to join us by rendering redundant the household charge and dumping it in the waste basket of history. We must instead put in place other structures that provide for more secure sources of funding.

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