Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. From where do the mandarins in the Department of Finance, who came up with the figure of €500 million, expect this money to come? It is not possible to get blood from a stone. The Government is being awfully generous in the exemption under section 7 from this tax in respect of accommodation provided to persons who by reason of old age, physical or mental disability or other cause require special accommodation and support. It should take a bow. Those in Government are wonderful people. That their generosity knows no bounds is demonstrated by the fact that they have opted not to throw such people into pauperism and back into the soup kitchens and poor houses. Cromwell once said, "To hell or to Connacht." We now have the Taoiseach, Deputy Kenny, and the Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, saying "To hell or back to the homeless agencies or the soup kitchens". This Government will drive people into penury. There will be no place for members of the Government to hide. They, too, have to return to their constituencies and meet the people. When in Opposition, the Taoiseach said it was morally unjust to tax a person's home. What has gotten into him, and in such a short time? The Taoiseach has been a Member of this House for an awful lot longer than I have but he seems to have lost all connection with the ordinary people whom he, like the rest of us, was elected to represent. It is not too long ago the Taoiseach was on this side of the House telling those in Government what they were doing wrong.

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