Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That there is such an inadequate amount of time is the nub of the problem. Some of us went to the trouble of framing amendments in good faith, but there is no good faith in dealing with them. Even the Title of the Bill belies its intent, as there is nothing local about the tax. It is not raised locally, the money spent will only replace the money withdrawn from the local government fund and no additional services will be provided to people.

It is radically different from what happens in other countries in that local property taxes are raised locally. People know what they are paying for, which is a world away from what is being proposed in this case.

Issues are going to jump up and bite us, so to speak, because they have not been properly considered. People have made modifications to their homes to accommodate disabled persons - with or without a local authority grant. In some cases people had to wait so long for a grant that a local community has fund-raised to allow the modification to be made. Such a family will not qualify on the grounds that it did not get a grant simply because it would have had to wait for too long. There is a world of difference in terms of how local authorities administer the grant process. That requires scrutiny for a particularly vulnerable cohort.

There are major difficulties with what has been proposed on pyrite-affected homes. A household might have to expend three times the amount required in property tax just to have the house tested to prove pyrite levels are sufficiently high to require exemption. Leaving aside the principle of a property tax, we have identified a number of issues that will be problematic in terms of the fair application of the tax. Not having sufficient time to debate the issues will result in future problems. We cannot ignore the fact that according to the credit union movement, 1.8 million households have only approximately €100 of disposable income per month on which to live. A significant cohort will simply not be able to pay the tax. It is wrong to allow interest to build on deferred payments. I will leave it at that. I hope there will be an opportunity to speak on some of the issues.

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