Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will not take up too much time because many of the points have been made. I wish to put on the record, however, the fact that this is probably the most inappropriate legislation that has come before us in the past 18 months. It is the most draconian and feudal Bill that this country has seen in decades, whereby the Revenue Commissioners will be brought in as a strong arm of the law to force people to pay who cannot pay. If they cannot pay by the end of the year, the Revenue will have the authority to take tax credits from people's wages. Those people will then have to decide whether to put food on the table, pay the ESB or gas bills, or pay transport costs to get to work. It is one of the most draconian pieces of legislation that I have seen.

This will be the most hated tax in the country and is being introduced by a Fine Gael-Labour Government. It will be much worse than the tax on children's shoes that was brought in decades ago. The household tax boycott was progressive in that it united rural and urban communities. That is the basis of people wanting to resist this property tax. It should not, and will not, be viewed - as other Deputies have said - as a tax on more affluent areas. This is a family home tax to bail out the bondholders and cannot be described otherwise.

This country probably has one of the highest rates of home ownership in Europe. In recent decades, however, housing policy has failed the people. They were encouraged to buy their own homes. Everything, including mortgage interest relief, was put in place to encourage people to buy homes. Now, however, when people need protection most, the Government comes after them for a family home tax.

When I return home, I do not say I am going to a property; I say I am going to my family home, to close the door behind me, light a fire and look after the family. This policy will fail and even if the Minister rams it through and takes the tax from people's wages in 2014, it will be resisted. People will be waiting for the Minister to come knocking on their doors, but I can tell him that the doors will be slammed in his face.

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