Dáil debates

Thursday, 6 December 2012

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed)

 

1:20 pm

Photo of Joe HigginsJoe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The end of the advertisement stated, "Fine Gael: every little hurts!". Is the Labour Party suffering such delusion that it believes the savage cuts by Fine Gael hurt, but, when Labour blesses those cuts, somehow they do not? Is the Labour Party suffering from delusion that savage cuts in the living standards administered by Fine Gael might hurt badly, but when supported by the Labour Party, those cuts come with a miracle anaesthetic that working-class people miraculously will not feel the pain?

The property tax - a home tax in reality - constitutes one of the most vicious impositions of the budget, designed to gouge anything from €200 to €600 a year from the majority of low and middle-income homeowners. With water tax following, the cost will quickly become €1,000 and beyond. The administrative procedures outlined for the attempted collection of the property tax give the lie to and blow out of existence the propaganda of Government that it is, first, a broadening of the tax base and, second, a local tax. The myth that a property tax broadens the tax base is a transparent ruse to pretend that because it is called a property tax, it does not come out of incomes but from some other mysterious source. It is, therefore, allegedly not a tax on work. However, what is proposed in the budget? According to what we were told yesterday the Revenue Commissioners can instruct an employer, a pension provider or the Department of Social Protection to deduct the amount of property tax from wages. So much for the property tax not being a tax on work or on incomes.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.