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

I join Deputy Catherine Murphy in protesting in the strongest possible terms at the imposition of the guillotine. Many of us would like to speak for a considerably longer time because there is a lot in this Bill. The Tánaiste put on a display of political cynicism when we was questioned on this matter yesterday. It beggared belief that Government Deputies were chortling in their seats about playing the PR spin game and refusing to acknowledge the serious protest we had made to the imposition of the guillotine. Despite the Government's grandiose claims about democratic revolution, transparency and a new kind of politics, it has established a clear pattern whereby a Bill is guillotined if it is controversial or looks set to face serious opposition but non-controversial legislation is allowed to run for days. That is the game it is playing. I do not know why Government Members are not ashamed about that level of manipulation. It is scandalous. It is bad enough that the country is in its present hole or that the Government plans to increase the people's suffering by imposing this charge on hundreds of thousands of ordinary householders but it is absolutely shameful that it refuses to allow proper debate and scrutiny of these measures.

Government Members have honed their skills in media manipulation and PR very well. It is a pity that we do not live in the world of "The Matrix", where perception is reality because if we lived in the virtual reality bubble in which this Government appears to reside - the media virtual reality bubble where if one says something often enough it becomes reality - it would be great. However, when we walk outside of the bubble of this House and go to the estates, towns and villages to talk to ordinary people, they can see through all this virtual reality and media spin and manipulation because they have to face the cruel reality of having no jobs and their incomes being slashed. They do not know how they can manage their bills or pay their mortgages. They are terrified for the future of their children and are at their wits' end about their capacity to survive. It was heart wrenching to hear stories of ordinary workers in IBRC - not the management - who spent their lives paying taxes only to discover via the television that their jobs were gone and they would be walking away, in their 50s or 60s, after years of employment with €13,000 as a pay off. They do not know how they are going to pay their mortgages. One story we heard yesterday involved a man in his 50s who never depended on social welfare for a day in his life and does not know whether he can pay his mortgage. That is the appalling reality.

The Government now wants to impose a charge of hundreds of euro per year on top of that reality. People simply cannot pay it and all the spin and manipulation of the democratic process will not mask that reality nor will it prevent the people from feeling rage, anger and despair. It is time the Government got rid of the myopia it seems to suffer and started to face the reality that it is asking hundreds of thousands of people to do something that is not possible. They cannot pay. Approximately 200,000 children live in poverty. Their parents and families also suffer poverty. How does the Minister expect them to pay? We have asked that question time and again. How does he expect people who cannot pay their mortgages to pay this new tax? I laugh when I hear him say this is a better alternative to increased income taxes because the latter would be a tax on jobs. It is as if there are two different realities. There is one reality in which people get their pay packets and another reality in the mysterious source of money that can be found in the back gardens of their houses. Money trees do not grow in the back of people's homes. Where are they supposed to get the money?

This will have a depressing strangulation effect on the rest of the economy. Does he not see what he is doing? Every euro he takes out of the pockets of people who cannot pay their bills is another nail in the coffin for the domestic economy. The deferrals are a joke. Those who are in insolvency arrangements may get deferrals. They are strangled with debts and forced into these arrangements because of the activities of banks but as soon as they get out of them they will have accumulated further debt through the property tax, thereby offering a vista of misery for years to come for hundreds of thousands of families.

We continually remind the Minister of the alternative, but he refuses to debate it seriously, just as he does not want this debate. Why instead can we not tax those sectors of society the Minister refuses to touch? Unbelievably, I got an answer from the Department today to a question I put regarding corporation tax, stating it could not calculate the effective corporation tax rate. When I ask about the effective income tax rate, the Minister gives the answer. It is a simple calculation of the gross income, tax paid and the percentage of the latter as a proportion of the former. That is the effective tax rate. However, when the same question is asked about the corporation tax rate for the corporations he refuses to touch, which could be hit for further taxes to save the suffering of ordinary people, he says sorry but it cannot be calculated. That is rubbish. It is clear, using the same methodology as for calculating the income tax rate, the effective corporation tax rate in this country is 6.2%, half of what the Minister claims it is.

The Minister should be fair. He must be fair to the economy and to those who are suffering. He should tell the truth, allow for real debate and begin to consider taxing those who can afford to pay rather than those who are being crippled.

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