Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt what we are doing is an affront to democracy. Much has been said previously about this evening’s business. This is the second piece of legislation on the property tax and the Minister has done exactly the same thing with it as was done with the previous legislation. I accept that the lead spokesperson had time to debate the issue on Second Stage but we want to get into the nitty-gritty of the Bill on Committee Stage. We are dealing with section 1, which relates to the Title because we are aware that we will not get to the amendments we have tabled that cover many of the other sections.

The Minister is aware of Sinn Féin’s position on the tax. We are completely opposed to it. We make no bones about it. We do not say it is the wrong time or the wrong tax; it is simply our position that a family home tax should not be imposed on the people of this State. Sinn Féin is committed to having the tax repealed. We believe the only way for people to avoid paying the tax is to repeal it. I will continue to try to enlist support for such a measure both inside and outside this Chamber so that there is a popular demand for it and that in future we will have a Government that will repeal this legislation which will have such a drastic effect on people across the State.

A property tax will affect people’s disposable income, well-being and in some cases, mental health. I received a phone call to my office from someone in mortgage distress. A property tax goes to the nub in terms of mortgage distress because there is nothing in the Bill that will bring any alleviation to the 180,000 people who are suffering through mortgage distress and who face various types of turmoil. A member of my office staff told me about a phone call she received where the husband recounted to her that his wife is crying all the time because they cannot get out of the turmoil they are in due to mortgage distress. They are preoccupied with the thought of losing their home or of not being able to pay their bills and all of the pressure that brings to bear on people. He told the member of staff who took the call that one night he went upstairs and gathered whatever coins he could find together and gave his wife the money to get something for herself.

We previously discussed mental health issues, people taking their own lives and the effects various decisions have on society. There is no doubt the Minister will not bat an eyelid when he gets his letter from the Revenue. Neither will the Taoiseach. How could they on the salaries they receive? It is just another cheque that has to be written and another letter to be posted to the Revenue. It means nothing to them. It will not put them up or down. However, for the vast majority of people the tax is a big consideration they will face in the coming days and weeks. There is no doubt that from Monday on, when the postman starts to deliver the letters from the Revenue, houses across the State will dread the rattle of the letterbox heralding another bill on the family. Such families have probably been sitting around the table doing the sums on how they can afford this or that, which bill they will prioritise and which one they will ignore and, hopefully, catch up on later. The letter will be accompanied with the harshness of the Revenue’s stamp. If a person is not in a position to pay the tax and they cannot get a deferral, then the big boys in government will come after them. They will come after them through their social welfare payment, if they are unemployed and lucky enough to be in receipt of a social welfare payment. They will come after them if they are a farmer depending on REPS payment or area aid so that the income they were expecting to get to ensure stock are fed during the bad winter will be reduced. Worse again, Revenue will dip into their bank account and the money they thought was there to pay for their mortgage or certain bills will be taken by the State because, come hell or high water, the Government will get its pound of flesh.

This is an unfair and unjust tax. There are different ways to bring in revenue. The Minister knows that as well as I do. In the context of bringing in additional taxation, every option will affect someone and it will hurt some people more than others. I deplore the approach being taken that every single person who has a roof over his or her head must pay a tax. The tax is not based on the value of one’s home because for many, it is a charge on a liability. It is a charge on debt. The Minister is aware that people are swimming in a pool of debt. They are drowning in a sea of debt. The Minister knows the figures as well as I do. Properties have lost 55% of their value in recent years. Just this week an auction in Dublin included a property in Donegal. I do not know the owner but I am sure the mortgage on the property was more than €25,000, which was the reserve price for the apartment in Letterkenny. The apartment did not even sell. People are suffering under massive debt and the property tax will add to the burden.

I feel like I am talking to a brick wall. I genuinely cannot get over how quickly the Government lost touch. Fianna Fáil lost touch gradually and the situation probably accelerated in the boom years when it lost complete control. The Government is in office two years. It is two years ago since the Government entered this Chamber to hang out its brightest colours. Two years later its brightest colours are coming in the form of envelopes that will be posted by the Revenue through hundreds of thousands of doors that will bring nothing but misery, hardship, pain and more suffering to individuals from whom the Government promised to lift the burden and deal with the terrible situation it inherited.

The legislation is flawed. In my Second Stage speech I mentioned that some aspects of the Bill are positive and others are negative.

Even the types of exemptions that the Minister is trying to trumpet as a huge success are far from it. Take the pyrite exemption, for example. Homes affected by pyrite will be exempt, but who is kidding who? If one looks at the section of the original Bill dealing with the chargeable value of a house, the legislation says that it amounts to what one is deemed to be able to get as a fair market value if one was to sell one's house on the liability date. If I own a house affected by pyrite, does the Minister think I will get anything for it? It will not be sold because there is no value in it. An apartment in Letterkenny which is not affected by pyrite would not be sold for €25,000. A house affected by pyrite has no value at this point in time. Therefore, giving an exemption to a house affected by pyrite makes absolutely no sense because 2%, 10%, 50% or even 90% of the value of a house affected by pyrite is still zero. It will not sell in the market today so giving it an exemption is meaningless. It is an attempt by the Government to dress this up and pretend it is tackling the issue of the tens of thousands of homes that are affected by pyrite.

Another issue of concern arises with regard to the section dealing with homes adapted for persons with disabilities. We will not even reach that section of the Bill but it is an area about which I am genuinely passionate, on the basis of my own family experience with a late uncle of mine. His family had to adapt their house many years ago, which cost a lot of money, and the community responded to their need. I have been in many homes where adaptions were necessary. The section of the Bill dealing with such homes contains a fig leaf which will addresses the concerns of some people but not others because it is based on a grant having been availed of that was means tested and which covered a portion of the value of the work carried out at the time. It is mean and cruel.

I will cite one particular situation and I am sure the person concerned will not mind me mentioning it. A fisherman from one of the islands off the coast of Donegal had a terrible accident. When I started out in politics, we had a fund-raising campaign to help pay for an adaption to his house. I know him and have visited him a number of times over the years. His house has been adapted and he lies there, paralysed. His mother looks after him all of the time and has suffered as a result of cuts inflicted by this and the previous Governments. That adaption had to be made. It was not done because the mother wanted another room and an extra bathroom. It was done because her son had to be cared for, and had the adaption not been made, he would have had to be put into long-term residential care. Yet the Minister, with this legislation, still will not address that family's concerns because it is based on the family's income at the time. Furthermore, if they did not apply for a grant at the time, they do not get an exemption from the property tax. These are issues that we will not even get to touch on this evening, although I appreciate being allowed to mention them now. It is really annoying that, despite our complete and utter opposition to this legislation, and despite the fact that we have tabled amendments which are sensible and which, if the Minister had time to discuss and thrash them out, he might have a second look at, that is not going to be facilitated because the Minister and his Cabinet and Government colleagues have voted to quash debate on this legislation.

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