Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The proposed tax on family homes is not only an attack on those who own their own homes but also on those who rent local authority housing. It is a regressive tax which does not take into account the dire financial circumstances in which so many now find themselves, including the tens of thousands of families in negative equity. It is also an attack on the civil rights of citizens, who will be forced to pay the charge out of their wages or social welfare payment. We are told that the Government has to make tough decisions. Ordinary people are making tough decisions every day, such as whether to put bread on the table or withhold their rent, mortgage, electricity, gas or telephone bills. People are forgoing essentials to make ends meet and eke out an existence. That is how serious living has become in this country. The Government, however, is targeting the least well-off, including women, children, carers and people on low and middle incomes.

I commend Deputy Colm Keaveney and others in the Labour Party on their recognition that enough is enough and the threshold of decency has been passed. We have a serious housing problem in this State. It is a crisis that has been raging for several years, precipitated by the abject failure of every Government since the foundation of the State to deal with the shortage of social housing.

The current demand, more than double the lowest levels ever recorded in the State, is approximately 100,000 applicants on the housing waiting list, with an additional 100,000 on RAS and rental supplement, which I do not consider to be housed.

Local authorities, housing bodies and co-operatives house many thousands of people in every county, borough and city. They provide that most basic of things, a roof to lie under and a place to call home. A state which fails so many in this regard is not one of which to be proud. Funding for social housing has been cut repeatedly in recent years following decades of the running down of public housing and the long-running attempt to relinquish the State of the responsibility for social housing provision. The buck has been passed on to the housing bodies which cannot meet the demand and are getting cut by the Government. The private rental market has also been enlisted, being subsidised by more than €600 million every year, as more than 100,000 families are on rental subsidy and RAS. It is a shame that we have gone down that road.

Last week, the Government cut a further €46 million from the local authority housing budget, down to €65 million from €189 million in 2011. Regeneration projects, in Cork, Dublin and Limerick in particular, have been cut by €34 million. Funding for Traveller accommodation has been virtually abolished. That is unsurprising given who is Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. Traveller sites and homes are to be liable for the tax. Housing is not a priority for this Government. The thousands in substandard, overcrowded, unaffordable accommodation crying out for a decent place to live, the cut after cut to housing and the increase in the number of those sleeping rough and shelters bursting at the seams are all testament to that. Now we have the home tax, which is the nail in the coffin for anyone who was naive enough to believe the Government gave a fiddler's for housing. If the Government rejects the Sinn Féin amendments, the new tax will be levied on the houses provided by local authorities and housing bodies. That will add approximately €5 to €7 a week on each council property. It is an absolute scandal. For local authorities across the State that means a bill of approximately €25 million. According to Respond! Housing Association it will cost it up to €400,000 and cost the voluntary sector €3 million as a whole. Most likely, those figures do not take into account the loss of work hours calculating the levy on these bodies for the audacity of doing a job the State has failed or shirked.

Local authorities are supposedly to benefit from the home tax. What a lot of nonsense. What benefit will councils realise as they fork out for every home they have provided? The only conclusion is that this money will be taken from services the council provides. In Dublin, we have a crisis not just in provision but also in the upkeep of social housing. How much will the council cut from maintenance to pay its bill for the home tax? Will tenants be forced to pay higher rents? Will local authorities have to front-load the tax? Given that some tenants are already struggling and many are in arrears, one could ask how we will get money from such people.

I urge the Government to support the amendments my party has submitted. The amendments would exclude social housing from liability. It is unacceptable to force any person or family on social welfare to pay out of their payment. We would also exclude pyrite-affected homes. Families who live in homes which have serious structural problems or are threatened by them should not have to pay the tax. Such people were failed by the State which did not properly regulate to weed out materials contaminated with impurities like pyrite and there must be recognition of that. I welcome the exclusion of unfinished estates but I ask that the owners of homes in problem buildings or estates such as Priory Hall, The Laurels, Gleann Riada, Aileach Valley and Balgaddy would also be included. To do anything else would be to act irrationally and callously. We have had too much of that from the Government already.

Many of my former Labour colleagues on the council have decided to abandon the tenants for whom we all fought in the council chamber. We fought to keep rents down and to help such tenants by seeking increased funding for maintenance. Members have let tenants down. They have forgotten where they came from. There are alternatives. We have shown what they are. One such possibility is a wealth tax. It is being used more and more in Europe. Even the opposition in Germany has proposed a wealth tax. Let us look at possible alternatives and listen to proposals made by others. People have rights and it is a breach of civil rights to go after people's money. It is an outrage that we have come to this stage. There may be legislative reasons why this measure should not be allowed. It is outrageous. I call on Members to vote against the Bill, which will impose huge penalties on families, far more than people realise. In January or February people will be beating down our doors on all the other budget cuts. This tax will elicit the same response when people see what is involved. I urge Members to vote against the Bill.

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