Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

This family home tax is draconian, anti-family double taxation, which represents a blunt and brutal assault on family incomes with no sense of fairness or equity. When in Opposition, the Taoiseach said: "It is morally wrong, unjust and unfair to tax a person's home," with which I agree. However, he has now done a U-turn on this issue.

Families have been hammered by this and the previous Government. They are being forced to pay for a recession the creation of which they had no hand, act or part in, and to pay this tax. These are the same families whose PRSI, child benefit and back-to-school clothing and footwear payments were cut in the recent budget. Many of these families have also had their respite care grants cut. It is not they that will not pay this tax; they cannot pay it.

As stated previously, a recent credit union survey indicated that 1.85 million people in this country have less than €100 per week left after essential bills have been paid; 630,000, or 18% of people, have no money left and 245,000, or 7%, have less than €20 left after paying essential bills, while 42% of people have had to borrow money during the past 12 months to pay bills. These are the families that are being asked to pay this shameful and disgraceful tax. They are the same families who are in mortgage distress and whose homes are in negative equity. They are the same families who paid enormous stamp duty on their homes and who are paying management fees at disgracefully high rates to management companies in this city and in other cities and towns.

There is no link between ability to pay and payment of this tax and no exemption for low-income families. While the Bill provides for deferrals, it is a sham. Also, it is a deferral with a penal rate of interest.

It is proposed that local authority tenants and tenants of voluntary housing agencies will be liable for this tax. As other speakers have said, Respond! and other voluntary housing agencies have confirmed that if they are required to pay this tax they will end up in severe financial difficulties and some may have to close. They will have no choice but to pass on this tax and, in the case of voluntary housing agencies, the €90 per house registration to the tenancies board, to families and to tenants.

There were other choices, many of which have been outlined in this House during the past month and even the past number of years. If the Labour Party had any sense of decency or commitment to the founders of its party it would have this Bill withdrawn immediately.

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