Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Most people’s houses are owned by the banks and most people must pay massive mortgages. For those who bought in the last decade, they are essentially paying dead money in payments on a house that is worth half of what they borrowed. So many young families bought houses because they were encouraged, cajoled and bribed into doing so by politicians, the Government and banks. Many of these families paid stamp duty when buying their homes, with amounts of many thousands of euro in many cases.

The family home tax will not take into account what people earn. There is a threshold of €15,000 for a single person where payment can be deferred but there will be 4% interest for that luxury. The person who is absolutely skint will have to pay more in home taxes as not only must the tax be paid eventually but there will be interest on top. The person who is well off can pay this charge without a blind bit of notice because his or her income has not been touched by Labour or Fine Gael.

The Government faced massive resistance on the household charge of €100. People said they could not and would not pay it. Nevertheless, the Government has sent out threatening letters to families, building up the stress for people who could not pay. The exemptions for the property tax are pitiful and we all know that social housing will be included.

The Minister stated the property tax will be levied on local authorities. In such circumstances, local authorities will be forced to increase rents for their tenants, which is disgraceful. The idea that people will be chased into the grave for this unjust tax is unjust and repulsive. As I indicated, the proposed deferral is a sham. Asking people to pay more because they do not have the money to pay the property tax in the first place is a disgrace.

Nobody who will struggle to pay the family home tax cares if other countries have family home taxes. The countries in question did not have a property boom or crash, as we did, nor do they have huge household debts, as is the case across this State. Taxes in other countries pay for free health and education and decent public services, whereas our taxes pay for the mistakes of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party. The family home tax will pay for bankers’ salaries and bondholder bailouts. That is the difference and the Minister should be ashamed to bring such a measure to the House.

A comprehensive wealth tax is the way of the future. The Minister should look abroad to find out what his ministerial counterparts are doing in France, Spain and Iceland. The Tánaiste should note that his party's sister party in Germany, the Social Democratic Party, SPD, proposes to introduce a wealth tax, as do the Liberal Democrats in Britain.

Sinn Féin twice produced legislation that would have reduced the salaries of Ministers, Deputies, Senators and the Taoiseach. Not one cent has been cut from politicians' salaries today. We asked the Government to cut the incomes of politicians and high ranking civil servants rather than cut child benefit but despite tinkering with allowances, the basic salary of a Deputy continues to be €92,000 a year, a Minister still earns €169,000 per annum and the Taoiseach earns €200,000. Not only does the Minister for Finance, who introduced the taxation measures that will bear down heavily on ordinary families, earn €169,000 but he still receives a ministerial pension from his previous time in office. That is not acceptable.

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