Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy with that. If one goes for a job in this country, one generally has to go for an interview. When one goes in for the interview, one is asked certain questions and one gets the job depending on how one answers the questions. If, subsequently, the employer discovers that one did not tell the truth, one will most likely lose one's job and possibly face criminal problems for not telling the truth to one's employer. Before the general election, jobs were up for grabs and interviews were held - we call them elections. In that interview process, one of the people looking for one of these positions - that of Taoiseach - told us in this interview that it was morally wrong to tax a person's home. Now that we have found out that he does not believe that anymore even though he got the job. Unfortunately, unlike other jobs, we cannot automatically get rid of him. The strange thing is that when the people who employed him and who are not happy at the fact that he misled them fight against it, they are the ones who are called criminals. It is strange the way the State can do what it wants and an individual basically gets a kicking.

When one turns on the Government's broadcasting unit - RTE - it introduces the item by saying "in other European countries, they have property tax" as if we had no form of property tax here. We have a form of property tax in the form of development fees, stamp duty, road opening licences and getting connected to a water supply. Over the past few weeks, my local authority has decided to up its game in respect of getting back payments of these development fees or "property tax" that apparently nobody is paying. A woman contacted me about this issue. When one adds up all she owes and has paid so far to Roscommon County Council, she will have to pay in total about €8,500 in development fees or "property tax" as one might like to call it. She must then listen to our, or the Government's, national broadcaster telling her that they pay property tax in other countries while we do not. What is the €8,500 about? Over a 40 year period, that adds up to €200 per year. At the same time, this person is being told that she is not paying a property tax. Well if it is not a property tax, what is it? The first thing the Government needs to do is to be truthful with people and not tell them the reason this tax is coming in is because every country has a property tax and we do not. We already have a property tax. To make it worse, these people must borrow this money and the amount is bigger still. It will work out at about €300 per year over 40 years. Still this person is being told that she is not really paying a property tax. What is it? It is a property tax.

There has been much focus, and rightfully so, on people's ability to pay and the fairness of this. It is quite clear that even if people want to pay it, a very significant part of the population cannot pay it.

People are not going to be able to be given waivers. From that point of view, for the first time in my life, I will agree with Fianna Fáil that this is the wrong tax at the wrong time, although it the one which thought it up originally.

There is a bigger problem with this tax and any other tax to an unaccountable local authority system. I know I will be told the Government plans to reform that system. However, the reform will make it less accountable. If a person purchases a product in a shop and that product is covered in mould or rust or faulty, that person can go back and get value for money. However, if a person is paying money into the local authority system and not happy with the service provided, it is a case of, "Tough." There is nothing anyone can do about it. County councillors have no power. In fact, if they try to hold county councils to account, they will receive the treatment I received - the council will withdraw facilities for recreation in spite. On the notion that one could hold the local authority to account, I tried to hold the county council accountable to the point where in the end if people came to me with queries about planning permission, I had to tell them not to come to me because it was one way of being refused planning permission.

We are now being asked to pour more money into this system. I have said it before and will repeat it now that it is a case of pouring more water into a bucket with a hole in it; the first thing to do before putting more water into a bucket with a hole in it is to fix the bucket. There appears to be no plan to do this. In fact, I got a flavour of what Government Deputies really though of local government reform and wanted to see happen. A Government Deputy said in the House that it was all very well saying power would be devolved to local authorities but that would leave Deputies with very little power. This shows how the Government has missed the point about the importance of local democracy and local decision-making. It shows that the important consideration for the Government when it comes to governance is having control over absolutely everything and not giving control to local communities in order that they could actually develop their local places. Everything is run from Dublin, which adds up to more waste. If the Government wants this system to work, it will have to do something about it. I cannot see why people should have to put money into something over which they have no say. In many cases, in my experience the local authority treats people with contempt and it does so because it knows no one seems to be able to hold it to account.

The Government plans to pour more money into this system and the arguments have been made to it. It knows that in many cases people cannot afford to pay, but it is persisting. I refer to the credit union study of disposable income which the Government thinks is a work of fiction. It seems that it believes people can actually afford to pay. I suggest members of the Government should examine it for themselves and provide us with concrete proof that the figures from the Irish League of Credit Unions are not correct because no one seems to be able to disprove them. It must be concluded that people cannot afford to pay this tax.

The Government plans to publish a suicide strategy. The one point it seems to miss on the issue of suicide is that one of the biggest contributory factors is stress resulting from economic problems. In imposing this tax - this is only the thin end of the wedge because it will be increased - it will create further stress and more problems. People will be forced to decide between paying the mortgage, the household tax or the water tax and another tax is on the way. I do not know what it will be called - the underpants tax, the glove tax or the television tax - which people will not be able to pay, even though most of us prefer to pay our bills. The Government is putting them in a position where they will be unable to pay. Purely on the basis of ability to pay, it will have to scrap this tax. Most of all, on the basis that there is no accountability in the system, that is a good enough reason to vote against it.

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