Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As and from Monday, letters from the Revenue Commissioners will land in 1.6 million households across the State demanding payment of a tax on their family home. This tax takes no account of ability to pay, those in negative equity, those who paid massive stamp duty or the 180,000 families currently in mortgage distress. Let us acknowledge it is a tax championed and proposed by Fianna Fáil, which is now being implemented by Fine Gael and the Labour Party; a tax with no waivers; a tax for which the exemptions are a joke. The family home tax Bill is draconian legislation and it takes no account of the impact of this additional bill on families where people are at work or out of work, on the elderly and on the economy at large. The Government is actively pursuing a policy that will drive people into debt and some into poverty.

I would like the Tánaiste to set out for us the approach that will be taken in the event of non-payment or non-compliance with this tax on the family home. Can he confirm to the Dáil that the Revenue Commissioners, with the backing of Government, will move to deduct this family tax from people's social welfare payments, wages, bank accounts and credit union accounts?

See this speech in context