Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister to engage in this process in an open way and to consider genuinely the sensible proposals tabled by members of the Opposition. The way that the House has been treated in terms of this Bill and the legislation that it amends, which the House passed before Christmas, is a disgrace. Many genuine issues need to be teased out in some detail. For example, we will spend the next three days debating the Finance Bill in committee in a measured, considered and professional way. Why can we not apply the same level of responsible parliamentary behaviour in dealing with this Bill, which affects every household?

The Minister has shown no willingness to date to consider any of our amendments. I hope that he will prove me wrong. It is 7.05 p.m., this debate will adjourn at 7.30 p.m., it will resume at 9 p.m. and conclude at 10.30 p.m. We have less than two hours to debate 67 Opposition amendments to one of the most important Bills that the House will consider in this term.

Key issues that I will raise during the course of the couple of hours available to us are those of ability to pay and fairness. Adequate consideration has not been given to the needs of people who are struggling with mortgage arrears or are trapped in negative equity, who have paid high levels of stamp duty or development contributions to local authorities in recent years or who, through no fault of their own, are in low-income households. The thresholds that have been set are inadequate, even for deferrals.

Clearly, the Minister is not for turning on the overall principle of introducing a property tax. Be that as it may, all sides of the House have an obligation to seek to improve the measures that the Minister is introducing. I do not doubt that, having read through all of the amendments tabled by a variety of Deputies, some would make the property tax fairer if implemented. They would introduce in a meaningful way an assessment of a person's ability to pay and take into account the person's other obligations and commitments.

This is all that I will say at the outset. We have limited time. I want this to be a meaningful debate in which we deal with the amendments tabled. I hope that the Minister is of a mind to accept the more sensible amendments.

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