Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief seeing as we have very little time. I must say there is a sickening feeling of déjà vu about this session. It is a carbon copy of the charade that went on here before Christmas, where the Minister sat, nodding off while this side of the House was allowed vent its spleen a bit, nobody was present from the Government benches and then they came in like sheep later on to foist the original Bill on us. Here we are again only a matter of weeks later. It is galling to have been here on Friday and to have seen a line of backbenchers, particularly from Fine Gael, shedding crocodile tears about houses in Dublin, houses with pyrite and people on low incomes. These are the very issues around which we have tabled amendments tonight but which we are not going to get a chance to discuss in any meaningful way. This spectacle makes an absolute mockery of the legislative process. I am not actually interested in playing the game in here because the reality is that this battle or game will be sorted out outside this House. People will not put up with the waffle and rubbish that is coming out of this place because they simply cannot afford to pay what is being put on their shoulders. However, I do want the opportunity to expose Government backbenchers tonight who made false promises on the issue of pyrite, who shed crocodile tears for people on low incomes but who passed legislation that is more draconian than anything else on our Statute Book to allow the Government to put its paws into the pockets of low-paid workers.

Obviously, the Bill before us tonight is designed to take some of the sting out of the original proposition but it fails miserably in this regard precisely because it makes no reference whatsoever to ability to pay. The Minister's party fought the election with a manifesto which told voters that it would not bring in a home tax because people who own homes can be asset rich but cash poor or they can be young people struggling with negative equity. The Minister has rewarded all of those people for their votes by imposing the opposite of what his party said it would do. We have tabled amendments tonight to take account of those people and to exclude them from the net.

Obviously, we do not agree with a home tax at all. It is patently unfair, particularly when the Minister had many other avenues for raising money. He could have increased corporation tax just a tad. He could have slightly increased income tax on the high earners and he would have got just as much, if not more, as he will from imposing this further austerity on ordinary people. The Government chose not to do that. I want the Minister's backbenchers to have the choice to vote on our amendments tonight. I would like to know, before this session breaks, where the amendments stand. We do not know, at this stage, which of our amendments are being allowed and which are being ruled out of order. The least the Minister can do is give us the respect of allowing us to know that before we come back after Private Members' business.

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