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

The Bill for the Government's so-called property tax - in reality the home tax it plans to inflict on hundreds of thousands of ordinary struggling householders - is having its final Stages rammed through this House with yet another guillotine this evening. Just as the Government imposed a guillotine in the debate before Christmas, it is doing so again to foreclose proper debate and scrutiny of a Bill that will affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of families. The Government that promised us a democratic revolution is cynically shredding and manipulating the democracy of this House and this country to impose the diktats of the troika.

Is this lack of proper debate and scrutiny of the property tax a deliberate attempt on the part of Government to hide some of the most obnoxious features of this Bill, one of which I do not believe most people are yet aware of? Section 1 provides that the value of lands and gardens over and above one acre will not be liable to the property charge, which is incredible. This means the sprawling estates and large gardens, which would significantly boost the value of properties owned by multi-millionaires-----

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