Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a lot more to say and thank the Acting Chairman for his forbearance. County managers are saying this, that and the other with regard to the property tax and local authority tenants. I have always believed that if we have a property tax, everybody who has a home should pay something. I do not know what way the local authorities are going to deal with this. People have purchased their houses through the schemes. We have had fire sales in the past in order to sell of some of the housing stock at reduced prices. People like to own their own homes in Ireland, but why should one person pay property tax and another person pay none?

Although I do not have much time, I have a lot to say about repossessions. Laws were passed here to allow roving gangs to operate. This happened yesterday in Lucan, where ten individuals in balaclavas arrived in a big van, accompanied by the sheriff and gardaí. There was a poor woman in the house with two small babies and her grandmother, but they burst in the door with force. That should not be happening. Cromwell is long gone out of this country. Are we going to allow these thugs to behave in that way? It is State terrorism, nothing else.

I heard that Deputy Keating attended the scene. I hope the Minister of State is hearing this at his parliamentary party meetings. This should be stopped. That the banks we are bailing out should go in to evict someone like that in the early morning, with balaclavas-----

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