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

Some of us were less than impressed last week with the hype with great fanfare around the so-called deal on the promissory notes. Some 100,000 people took to the streets at the weekend who clearly did not believe much had changed for them. This morning Professor Patrick Honohan, the Governor of the Central Bank, reminded us that household financial distress was at extraordinary and unprecedented levels, yet today we understand the Minister for Finance will publish a Finance Bill that will still require hundreds of thousands of families to pay a tax on their family home that they simply cannot afford. There will, I understand, be no exemptions for the unemployed, pensioners, the 160,000 or so people in mortgage distress and workers who have had their incomes savaged such as the fully qualified nurse who as reported in the newspapers today is unable to pay her bills and a pensioner in my constituency who tells me that, despite having an income of just €200 a week, she is facing a bill of €800 a year in property tax when in March the demands drop. Very simply, if the deal on the promissory notes was such a wonderful achievement, as the Taoiseach claims, and, as he also claims, is going to leave us with €1 billion more in 2014 and 2015, can he announce today that, as he now has the money, he will abolish the property tax and not force the unemployed, pensioners, those in mortgage distress and others struggling to pay their bills to pay a tax on their homes that they simply cannot afford? If it was a real deal, the Taoiseach could afford to do this. He should make that commitment and promise and give a little hope and relief to ordinary people.

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