Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Last year, we saw an unprecedented public revolt and mass boycott against the unjust household charge the Government imposed. Faced with that revolt, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government went into hiding for a period but the Government finally admitted that the charge was unfair and unjust and promised something fairer. In recent weeks, it is becoming clear, through various leaks from the Government, that what is proposed will not be fairer. As we who opposed the household charge predicted, ordinary families, even at the low rate of 0.25% of the value of the property which has been leaked, will be paying between €500 and €800 per year in property tax.

With 1.6 million people having less than €100 left when they have paid their bills every month and 900,000 people living on or below the poverty line, including 100,000 children, how does the Tánaiste expect people to pay this charge? Does he not realise that if the Government presses ahead with this tax, hundreds of thousands of families will be pushed into poverty? One cannot get blood out of a stone. Does he not realise that the revolt and protests against the household charge will be nothing compared with the public revolt he will see if the Government imposes hundreds of euro more in austerity taxes on ordinary low and middle income families, the unemployed and people facing mortgage distress? It makes a mockery of the Government's claims that it will protect children if it imposes a property tax that will drive the parents of those children into poverty.

Will the Tánaiste assure the House that he will not impose further unsustainable financial burdens on ordinary families, the unemployed, low and middle income families and people facing mortgage and financial distress?

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