Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The Finance (Local Property Tax)(Amendment) Bill in no way ameliorates the property tax demanded. The property tax is an odious tax. It is a reprehensible new attack on the living standards of ordinary people, workers, pensioners and persons who are unemployed. It is also a bailout tax, a bankers' tax and a bondholders' tax. It is part of the tribute exacted from the people to bail out the European financial system, the banks, the speculators and the developers, following the disastrous crash in the financial markets for a period and in the Irish property bubble. This property tax is driven by international capitalist forces represented by the troika. The people are its victims, but an Irish Government is its agent. That is the reality. The people have no alternative except to resist, flat out, the imposition of this tax through mass resistance, worker and people power. They cannot look to the majority forces in Dáil Éireann for redress. There is massive opposition in society to the this tax.

The people cannot look to Fine Gael or the Labour Party for justice with regard to this measure because both parties have flagrantly done an about-turn on what they said to the people before the general election in 2011. In its manifesto the Labour Party stated it would be necessary to introduce a site value tax, which is different from a tax on the value of an individual's or the family home. It further stated it would be necessary to devise a fair basis for such a charge to take account of the value of property in different regions and those who had recently paid large sums in stamp duty or were in negative equity. Where is any of this reflected in a meaningful way in the Bill to implement the property tax? Fine Gael went one better in its manifesto. It declared that Fianna Fáil's proposal - now endorsed by the Labour Party - to introduce by 2014 an annual recurring residential property tax on the family home was unfair. Both parties have utterly and completely dishonoured what they stated to the people in the course of the general election campaign.

This tax has no democratic legitimacy.

That is the reality of the situation. This tax is being introduced at the same time that the proposals arising out of the so-called Croke Park II agreement have emerged. It is interesting that the imposition of the property tax and the full-frontal assault on low and middle income public sector workers are intermeshing with each other. Of course, there is an intimate link between the two. The Minister had the neck to repeat the old canard to the effect that the property tax is needed because the Government cannot put another tax on work. It is as if the workers on whom the property tax is being imposed have some hidden source of income or have secreted pots of gold under their houses into which they can dip in order to pay the tax. The lie is given to this propaganda by the legislation, which gives draconian powers to the Revenue to instruct employers to deduct the tax from workers' incomes. In other words, the method used to deduct actual income tax will also be used in this instance. Public and private sector workers will both have their incomes attacked in this way. At the same time, another and new attack will be made on public sector workers through the savage impositions and cuts contained in the so-called Croke Park proposals. I salute the trade unions which are resisting those proposals. Those trade union leaders who are supporting them are betraying workers.

When Revenue demands begin to be issued a few weeks from now, there will be a massive movement of resistance. This movement will comprise working class people, middle income earners, the unemployed and pensioners. As a result of the fact that citizens have no recourse to or no hope of any justice in Dáil Éireann, their most powerful weapon will be downright refusal to register for the property tax and to boycott the Revenue demands to which I refer in large numbers. People will be absolutely justified in doing that because it is the most effective way for them to try to force the Government to abolish this tax and to remove the burden it imposes. Half of those who own only one home continue to boycott the household tax introduced last year. The most effective way to proceed in this instance is, therefore, to engage in another mass boycott and for people to bring their case to the attention of Government Ministers and Deputies at their clinics and at public meetings. There must be a mass mobilisation and a demonstration of people power. In addition, citizens must carry their opposition and resistance forward. If Revenue dares to deduct the property tax from peoples' wages or social welfare payments, such a move must be met with massive resistance and opposition and by industrial action on the part of the workers who will be affected. What is being done must be fought in every way possible.

It is clear that there is a need for ordinary people to begin to put in place political representation for themselves. This will ensure that they will be properly represented and will no longer be told the kind of lies that were uttered during the course of the most recent general election campaign. People have been left at the mercy Fine Gael and Labour and their false promises. I strongly advocate that the anti-home tax movement and the anti-austerity campaigns throughout the country immediately begin putting in place a national slate of hundreds of candidates to run in the local and European elections to be held in June of next year.

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