Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister of State confirm whether it is correct to state that where local authorities carried out the instructions and inspections, they were instructed to do so by the Department and to take into account certain criteria when devising the lists? Obviously this was the case because in my county, 26 estates were exempt from the household charge but only one estate was exempt when it came to the local property tax. Does the Minister of State have faith in the standards and requirements demanded by local authorities on a regular basis before taking charge of local authority estates? Does she support the mechanisms and procedures involved in the process? If she does, it totally flies in the face of the policy she and the Department employed lately when devising the secondary list of exemptions. Does she also believe it was totally unfair and unjust for the Department not to employ any appeals mechanism once the list was completed?

Does the Minister of State believe it was opportunistic, to say the least, of her colleague and senior Minister to give a candidate in the Meath East by-election the impression of the distinct possibility that any representations might result in an appeal, and by association give the impression in some way or another that certain estates in the county might see favour in being taken from the list? This does not take from the point I made in the first instance. Any candidate, whether a representative of a local authority or otherwise, was quite entitled to make an appeal. The Department brought out a system which was unjust and unfair and did not allow for appeals. To return to the kernel of the point I am making, if the Minister of State agrees with the procedures and the mechanism by which local authorities take estates in charge, and I am sure she does as the Minister of State with responsibility in this regard, will she admit it flies totally in the face of the policy and criteria which she directed local authority staff to use when devising the list?

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