Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy knows that when we introduced the non-principal private residence tax, we set it at a rate of €200 and did not require anything to be paid in respect of one's primary residence. I invite him to work out on that basis what I think should happen in this instance. It is a question of the general approach or attitude of the State towards house ownership. Is it Government policy to provide that fewer and fewer people in family situations in this country own their own houses, just because that is the case in other countries? If that is not the policy of the Government, it should structure its tax reliefs, its tax policy and its charges in a way that facilitates the ownership of houses, particularly in circumstances where children are involved. The next question that arises is ability to pay. The problem with this tax is that it has no relationship with ability to pay. Another argument relates to those who bought houses at highly inflated prices and paid high levels of stamp duty. It is a Dublin argument, but it is a valid one. The people in question will pay more tax under this proposal because houses of the same square footage tend to be more expensive if they are in the capital. That will have an absolutely negative effect on those who genuinely bought houses because they needed somewhere to rear their families. That is inequitable. This proposal is ill thought-out. There is no proper philosophy behind it. The way it is constructed makes this an unstable form of finance. Most fundamentally of all, this measure breaks the golden rule of democracy, which is that one should rule with the consent of the ruled.

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