Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Before the break I outlined the situation in the Six Counties and I am glad it is on the record. It is a pity the Minister, Deputy Hogan, was not in the Chamber to hear it given his misrepresentation of it during the past 12 months.

The home tax has been promoted by the Government and in particular by the Minister, Deputy Hogan, who claims it will be used to fund local authorities and the services they provide. However, in the budget the Government continued to starve local government of much-needed funding. In a cynical move the charges outlined in the Bill will remain until after the forthcoming local government elections in 2014, when councillors will be elected to local government, after which time it will be safe to increase them.

The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has again cut funding to local government by 25% and this will further strangle the provision of local services. The local authorities' housing budget has been cut by a massive €46.7 million. This comes at the time of an unprecedented housing crisis. There are 100,000 families waiting to be housed in this State and the Government's response to that is to cut the local authorities' housing budget. The social inclusion capital budget has been cut by €2 million to €4 million and it is worth noting that in 2011 the budget was €9.3 million. Local authorities will be forced to increase the charge to compensate for the cuts imposed by the Government.

In a further attack on the elderly and people with disabilities, the Government has callously cut housing grants by €20 million. This will directly affect those people who depend on housing adaptation grants and housing aid for the elderly, and those with disabilities, who need that grant to continue living independently in their homes. What is most worrying is the blatant disregard for health and safety demonstrated in the further cut in the capital fund for the fire services. The budget now stands at €5 million, down from €12.25 million in 2011, and that must be of concern to everybody.

With one hand the Government continues to slash funding for local government while with the other hand it forces home owners, regardless of income, to compensate their local councils for these cuts. Those on disability payments and low-income families pay the same as the millionaire. The Taoiseach, one of the highest-paid politicians in the world, will be paying the same as the pensioner or those who are disabled, who have just had their telephone and electricity allowances cut. In my constituency of Laois-Offaly 130,000 local authority tenants have been brought into the loop and will face these increases through increased rent. In Laois more than 2,000 tenants will face those increases, while in Offaly more than 1,700 tenants will be crippled by having to pay the new home tax. I know from meeting these people that many of them are in dire straits. The Government is forcing local councils to depend on an unfair tax to fund services that have already been paid for in people's taxes or in direct charges, as I outlined. This is perverse, to say the least.

What makes this Bill even more unjust is the fact that there is no need to introduce it. The Government does not have to impose further punishment on those who have suffered so much and will suffer more on foot of the budget announced last week. It had choices. Sinn Féin gave it some of those choices. In the alternative budget we put forward, we spelt out exactly how the economy could be funded and how things could be turned around without the imposition of this punitive tax. We outlined 12 new tax measures that could raise €2.7 billion in additional taxation and, crucially, how more than €1 billion could be secured in savings by cutting high salaries. The Government could have done this without hitting low- and middle-income households. That is the key point. The proposals were costed based on data from Ministers and their officials. I heard talk in the House last week about fantasy policies by Sinn Féin. Surely the Minister of State is not going to say that the Minister concerned, other Ministers or their senior officials were giving out fantasy figures. He is not going to say that from the opposite side of the House because he cannot say it.

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