Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has initiated the discussion by virtue of what he had to say last week and what is within the local government action plan, Putting People First, relating to local property taxes. This is against the backdrop of the Thornhill report. The Minister commissioned the expertise of Mr. Thornhill to make recommendations to him.

The Minister has had the report since last May or June; he is heading into his fifth or sixth month with it. The Taoiseach tells us that the implementation of a property tax has not yet been discussed at Cabinet and that the only decisions made were that it would be implemented in the budget and collected by the Revenue Commissioners, and that it would come into effect next June or July. Will the Minister not share this report with someone, at the least those in the Cabinet? It cannot be that scary, although I realise the Minister has done some scary things in the past 12 months. Surely he could sit down and read the book to someone to give us an indication of where we are going with regard to property tax. The vagueness of it only adds to the aspirational feel of the whole document as produced last week. The Minister has opened the debate but has not produced the Thornhill report. I call on him to produce it immediately, considering he has had it for so long and is sharing it with no one. It is about time we all got a look at it, at least to establish what is being discussed or what might be discussed and ultimately what might be coming down the tracks. Let us compare it with what the Minister has referred to in the report.

Does the Minister now envisage local authorities augmenting the property tax the Government will bring in for their benefit in respect of services they might provide in future? If so, will that be collected by the Revenue Commissioners as well? Will the system of collection be enforced in the same manner in which the Revenue Commissioners enforce other types of collection?

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