Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will not take too long because many of the points have been made already. I want to put on record my objection to this being called a local property tax because it is neither local nor based on property. A number of years ago, the Labour Party, in a coalition Government, introduced a tax on houses worth over a certain value. The wealthy went on strike and the property tax was done away with. This is not about extending or broadening the tax base.

I am sure the Minister has seen posters calling for meetings of the campaign against the whole tax and water tax. The meetings have been small to date, although some of been big, strong and angry. People see this as a draconian tax and feel they are living in an economic dictatorship where the Government rams taxes on ordinary people's homes. This is a home tax, it involves the place where people live and not assets.

The Minister made the point that he is trying to deal with some of these issues and that he listened to us the last time. The Minister listened to us because he realised, particularly with local authority housing, that many local authorities had not budgeted for this year in terms of introducing a home tax. They need this year to change their budgets for next year and then to increase the rents on people living in local authority houses. These are not assets, these people are renting their homes and not thinking about buying them. That exposes the lie about that point.

On 5 March, some tenants in Dublin City Council local authority housing will be paying an extra €19 per week in rent. Local authorities are looking to increase rent for local authority tenants. I have had discussions with people about maintenance and mould problems in people's local authority homes. Local authorities are pointing to the amount of money private landlords receive and the rents local authority tenants are paying. They are considering increasing rents. The €19 per week increase will be introduced on 5 March. There is also the issue of deferment to next year of the local authorities paying the home tax.

This will be the rock on which the Government perishes. People will be very angry and the campaign against the home and water taxes will call meetings. As the leaflets are dropped into people's homes after 11 March, there will be a big response in attendance at public meetings held to discuss how to change the situation.

Fianna Fáil is saying this is the wrong tax at the wrong time. If it was in government it would be saying it is the right tax at the right time. I do not take much notice of what that party says.

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