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

In so far as this section deals with the title of the Bill, in many ways it gets to the heart of the dishonesty and cynicism that lies behind it. It is simply an abuse of language and meaning to call this a property tax, particularly in the context of the unprecedented popular campaign of resistance and boycott against the unjust household charge.

The Government claimed repeatedly it would bring in this tax as a replacement to the household charge, which it was forced to abandon, and that it would introduce a fair and progressive system, effectively implying it would be a wealth tax. We on the left had consistently called for such a tax in recent years and thought it was about to be introduced.

That, however, is not what this is at all. It is absolutely clear at a range of levels that it is not a property tax in the sense of property being real wealth held by what most people understand to be the wealthy, those with lots of property, the men and women of property, as they were called when people like Wolfe Tone tried to organise the men and women without property.

It was understood what that meant. It meant that there were some people who had lots of wealth and property and there were some who had little or none.

This is not a tax being imposed on those who have huge accumulations of wealth and property. This is a tax being imposed on every ordinary citizen in this country regardless of their ability to pay. It is a tax simply on the roof over their head, which is effectively a tax on the right to live in a civilised way. It is an obnoxious attack on ordinary citizens, utterly disregarding their capacity to pay it, to survive, to pay their bills, to educate their children and to manage in this extraordinarily difficult situation in which so many find themselves.

Earlier today in the Dáil the Taoiseach effectively admitted this. When Deputy Higgins asked him, given that four years ago he railed against any attempt to put a tax on the family home, why he is now imposing just such a tax, he said that things had changed and that we are in an extraordinarily difficult situation. He was referring, of course, to the financial collapse caused by developers, bankers, speculators, bondholders and all the rest of it. In other words he was acknowledging precisely the point we were making in referring to it as a bondholders' tax and that is what it is. There was no morality or progressiveness to it - it was simply an austerity tax being imposed in order to satisfy the troika and ensure the protection of the bankers and bondholders and to make ordinary people pay for that fact. It clearly confirms what we and everybody else in the country knows and believes to be the case. That the Government persists in trying to pretend it is progressive or a property tax in any sense that ordinary people would understand is pure dishonesty and spin on its part.

Another piece of evidence of how dishonest the attempt to call it a property tax is illustrated by what is happening in the local authorities. I presume what happened in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council this week is being replicated everywhere else. The Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county manager was asked why the budget going through the council this week makes no mention of the property tax even though Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council will be required to pay €7 million to the central government to meet its obligations under this property tax. The county manager was asked where he would get the money if he is sent such a bill by the Revenue Commissioners and he said it would go onto the rents of council tenants. So people who have no property will have this imposed on them by the local authority, which clearly indicates this is just a tax on ordinary people. It is not a property tax and the bill will be paid by local authority tenants.

Similar points have been made about people in negative equity. This is taxing the ball and chain around people's legs. This is like attaching a ball and chain to somebody, throwing them into the river, asking them why they cannot swim and threatening menaces and punishments because they cannot swim. It is outrageous. The homes of people, whose mortgages are like an albatross around their necks, some of which are damaged by pyrite or have major structural problems such as in Priory Hall cannot in any meaningful sense be described as property - as a form of wealth - on which it is legitimate to levy a tax.

The real giveaway which totally exposes the lies being used to justify the Bill is that it is being collected by the Revenue Commissioners, the people who collect income tax, and not by the local authorities. It will not increase in any way the provision of services or the funds available to local government. In fact, as I have just explained, local government will have to give money back to central government, having less money for services and punishing their tenants. That it is being collected by the Revenue Commissioners exposes the implication that somehow ordinary people have a different pot of money. The Minister is guilty of using the sort of mythology we tell children when they ask where we will get the money and they are told that it is on the money tree in the back garden. Does the Minister believe that hundreds of thousands of citizens, who are unemployed or have had their incomes savaged and are in mortgage distress, have money trees growing in the back garden and that they will be able to go and pick the money from the tree on their property in order to pay this tax? It is ludicrous.

Why does the Minister not tell the truth at least in the title of this tax and call it what it is? It is a tax to satisfy the greed of the bankers and bondholders being imposed on the roofs over the heads of ordinary citizens of this country regardless of whether they own that roof, regardless of their ability to pay it and regardless of their ability to keep food on the table for their children. It is shameful.

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