Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This extremely cynical and undemocratic attempt to ram through the property tax will not save the Taoiseach, as he hopes it will, from the popular revolt next year when people have this unfair tax imposed on them. The level of popular resistance and boycott that we saw concerning the household charge last year will be even greater and far more terrifying for the Government.

Despite the forlorn effort on the Taoiseach's part to try to forestall protest, none the less this is an extremely cynical exercise. There are 159 sections in the property tax Bill. By anybody's standards this is among the most important legislation this Government will ever put through the House. It will affect virtually every citizen in the country. There are a hell of a lot of details involved in the new powers it gives to Revenue to seize money at source from ordinary workers and social welfare recipients. It will have significant economic implications in terms of the burden it will impose on low and middle-income families. It will also potentially have a very damaging effect on the domestic economy, in addition to many more details, complexities and potential anomalies. Despite this, the Taoiseach intends to forestall that debate and squash those 159 sections into a couple of hours. We will be lucky if we get through seven or eight of them. It makes a farce and a sham of democracy, of this House and of its role in legislative scrutiny. It is cynical and dictatorial in the extreme.

The Taoiseach should lift the guillotine and at least allow for a debate on this measure. He should allow all amendments to be discussed. It can easily be done early next year because the property tax does not come into force until the middle of 2013. There is simply no excuse for this guillotine.

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