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

It is difficult to make any points so late in the day. The points made by the Minister reflect a disconnect with reality that I have seldom seen. People's homes are the greatest source of financial pressure on their lives when they are struggling to meet mortgage payments. They are shackled to a property and, even if they can find someone to buy it, it would not discharge their liability on it.

In instances where they spend their whole life paying for the property, the idea that the Minister would package that and call it an asset to be milked for further taxation is a ridiculous concept. The fact he would have the neck to accuse this side of the House of being out of touch does not make any sense. The disconnect is completely on the Government side.

The Minister said he would look at some of these issues in the Finance Act. That is not good enough. It is a total cop-out, in terms of pyrite. The findings of the pyrite panel were given to Government more than six months ago. It recommended that houses with pyrite should be exempted from the property tax.

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