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

Given that the Taoiseach refers to it so often, I would have expected him to do his homework and familiarise himself with the significant difference between the system of rating in the North and the tax on the family home he is proposing. For instance in the North, citizens do not pay for their bin collection. There is no suggestion of people paying for domestic water. People have provision of schoolbooks for their children and so forth. I am sure the Taoiseach knows this. However, he bounces this ball to try and distract from his own shortcomings and the reality as it pertains in this State.

The Taoiseach asks us to believe that Deputy Hogan, the magician Minister, has magically resolved the issues pertaining to ghost estates. That simply is not the case. I saw the Taoiseach was out on the ground in Meath East recently. I am sure if he had taken the trouble to talk to the many people who live in such estates there, they would have set out clearly how realities have not changed from one year to another. The Taoiseach, however, is quite satisfied to ask people who cannot afford this additional tax, those on welfare payments and pensions to pay it. He is quite satisfied to allow Revenue to reach into their pockets. He is quite happy to preside over a situation where people living in little more than building sites will be asked to pay this tax.

However, the Taoiseach's candidate in the current Meath East by-election says differently. She claims, on the Taoiseach's behalf I imagine, that the Minister, Deputy Phil Hogan, and the Government will revisit this issue and examine the criteria again. I can only take from the Taoiseach's response this afternoon that the candidate in question has been misled on that score. Is the Taoiseach insisting that those who have suffered the stress, inconvenience and hardship of living in unfinished and ghost estates must cough up with everyone else to pay this unfair tax?

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