Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The time for that was when the furnace was burning not now when the Taoiseach is trying to extract some oxygen from the ashes.

Why can the Taoiseach not go back to the troika which is demanding a property tax, and with whom it has agreement, and tell it about the report last week from the IMF? The Taoiseach will have read it. The IMF said that growth rates in this country will be down by almost half its projections for this year - from 0.7% to 0.4% and that growth rates next year will be down from 2.4% to 1.4%. What it is saying is that we cannot afford to pay, based on the assumptions set out in the bailout. Could the Taoiseach not go back to the troika and tell it that by the IMF's own criterion we cannot impose these sorts of taxes on middle Ireland because it will not be able to pay them?

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