Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a number of points. It has been very difficult for those in the general public to get their heads around this Bill. As I have said previously, in 1977 my father was a rate collector and when the rates were removed that year he lost his job. I have always believed that if local authorities are to be sustainable, they must have some way of raising revenue. I have also always believed that people should pay for local services. Even when I was a councillor I argued strongly for that. However, I was against a rate increase on the commercial side because Kildare was moving ahead of the rate of inflation at the time. I would have supported the establishment of a fairer and more equitable base.

I welcome the provision regarding houses that have been adapted to make them suitable for people with disabilities. I tabled a number of parliamentary questions on this matter before the Bill was published and I am delighted the Minister has taken account of this issue.

There are a couple of things that make me nervous. They are situations that might arise only once in every 10,000 cases. In The Field by John B. Keane, which deals with the auction of a field, as two people are hungry to buy the field, it drives the price above the guide price. It is possible for that to happen. Somebody might have a valuation on his or her property and pay the tax based on that valuation. Let us say he or she puts the property up for sale after about five years, and two people are interested in buying it. There is a guide price that is similar to the valuation the owner had on the house. However, the two people interested in purchasing the property drive the price far above the guide price. There is a fear that in such a case the Revenue Commissioners will pursue the vendor and claim he or she did not put a proper value on his or her property. It is an anomaly that happens when a number of people are anxious to buy the property and drive the price above the guide price. That happened during the Celtic tiger economy, when two or three people wanted to buy a property. It is something that should be considered in an amendment to the legislation. Where an abnormal situation such as that occurs, there should be some way of rectifying it without a penalty for the vendor.

It is provided for that 65% of the tax is to be retained locally. I believe more should be retained. People who pay for something like to identify where that money goes. It could be going into a big black hole; big government has many such holes. If possible, there should be some other way in which counties such as Deputy Bannon's county of Longford, which are not generating the same rate base as my native County Kildare, for example, could be subsidised. Invariably, more heavily populated counties have more traffic on the roads, greater usage of street lights and more need for playgrounds. Where a large number of people are paying rates in that county, they should see the benefits of that. I believe a larger percentage should be retained in the county in which it is paid.

I intend to criticise Sinn Féin. It is strange what one discovers when one does a little research. Previously, I would have called Sinn Féin a two-headed monster, with one head facing to the North and the other facing to the South, and the head that faces the North reacting differently from the head that faces the South. Down here its members are shouting and roaring that there should not be a property tax or any type of tax on people's homes. They call this tax a home tax. However, I hold in my hand a copy of the rate poundages for the last four years in Northern Ireland. It is strange reading. I was a member of Kildare County Council for a number of years during that period and I argued for a drop in commercial rates or a maintenance of the rate at the same level. That is being done throughout the country. However, Sinn Féin is in charge in Northern Ireland. In Newry, where 14 of the 30 councillors are Sinn Féin, the rate has increased each year for the ordinary people. They are Irish people. There are, therefore, two categories of Irish people in this country. I have just read a synopsis of Animal Farm. It starts by stating that all animals are equal, but Napoleon eventually decides to change that by stating: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Does Sinn Féin consider the Irish in the South more equal than the Irish in the North?

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