Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

As a committed socialist, I can assure the Minister that, contrary to his earlier assertion that this tax on the family home is a tax on capital assets or some form of Marxist ideology, it certainly is not. The idea that a home for which people have spent a lifetime paying or to which, in other instances, they are shackled for another 20 or 30 years is some form of asset to be sweated is a total outrage which has struck fear into the hearts of residents the length and breadth of this country. It is not good enough for backbenchers to wax lyrical and voice their concerns in a weak-kneed manner. The Government needs to get real. For many people in our State, homes are a liability that they would get rid of if they could, but they would not realise even a fraction of what they paid for them. The idea that council tenants and tenants of voluntary housing bodies will have an extra debt burden foisted on them is abhorrent. The idea that the solution to the problems facing those in mortgage arrears, who cannot make ends meet, is to foist another debt on them is outrageous. To add to that, the sop given by the Minister - that the situation of those who have houses afflicted with pyrite, whose homes are valueless, will be examined in the finance Act - is not good enough. What sort of tax relief will they be given and who will deem the granting of such relief? Who will deem the certifiable level of pyritic heave? Who will pay for the testing and so on? Apart from all those people who are in dire economic straits, to add insult to injury, it is considered that people who are poor can have the privilege of paying extra. The Government deigns that the poor can pay more and that their families can pay more when they are dead. This is one of the most draconian pieces of legislation that has ever been put before the House.

People often talk, sometimes in exaggeration, about taking food out of the mouths of families or children, but that is literally what this legislation proposes. What the Minister is proposing, unlike any of his predecessors, is to forcibly put his paw into the pockets and into wage packets of workers and take from them moneys that they would otherwise spend on electricity, food and so on. The idea that he can do this without provoking a reaction is an absolute fallacy. He has clearly chosen to wage war and it will be met with outright resistance. In my opinion, this property tax, which is a home tax, will be the match thrown into the dynamite factory of Irish society. The Minister let the cat out of the bag and exposed the backdrop to this - that the reason he is doing this is not to improve our situation but to pay for the private debts of bankers and bondholders and the deficit in this State. The idea that taking money from people will only, as he said, have a small adverse effect on economic performance is rubbish. Next year he proposes not to take half a year's property tax from people but to take a year and half's property tax.

The Minister asked what our alternative is. I will give it to him in 20 seconds. Our alternative is that if he were even to enforce the existing rate of corporation tax - he would not have to increase it - he would get €4 billion in revenue, which is the equivalent of eight years of home tax revenue. People realise this is nothing more than daylight robbery and they will strenuously resist this measure.

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