Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This debate should have taken place after the budget but the debate at that stage was shut down by the Government because it did not want us to shine a light on the fact that Fine Gael Deputies from Dublin had campaigned in the election on the basis that property taxes were unfair. However, the anomalies that usually appear in rushed legislation, such as the gaps identified in the IBRC liquidation process which showed that credit unions and local authorities are the only bondholders being burned, have made it necessary to legislate for just causes, as identified in the amendments. I reiterate my party's position in this matter. In the context of negotiations with the troika, Fianna Fáil acknowledged that the tax base needed to be widened and that we were overly reliant on property related taxes. We committed to introducing a site value residential property tax and acknowledged during our election campaign that such a tax was likely to be introduced. However, the public responded by voting for Fine Gael which argued that any property tax would be unfair, promised to overturn the promissory note deal, achieve retrospective capitalisation of the banks and overhaul the troika memorandum of understand. They voted for Fine Gael because of the five point plan and they voted for the Labour Party because bondholders would be burned.

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