Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the Bill. Many people have seen through the tax. They saw that the only reason it was introduced was to allow the Government to pay off debts to the IMF, ECB and European Commission. The tax is not about improving services to people in local authority areas. For every cent it raises, a cent will be removed from local authority funding. No additional services will be provided nor will it sustain the services that are there already. Across local authorities, people see services being removed and closed.

We must acknowledge that the registration rate has been very high. The Government should clap itself on the back for that. It has frightened, harassed and threatened people to the effect that it was coming after them and will get the money anyway. People recognised that and through fear and gritted teeth, they signed up to pay the tax. As the tax starts to be deducted from people's wages and incomes, their anger will get deeper and deeper. The Government has created that anger by introducing this completely unfair tax and imposing it on people solely to pay off debts to the troika.

I pay tribute to all those who resisted the household charge and the property tax as it was introduced. In particular, I pay tribute to the people of Donegal who resisted these unfair taxes tooth and nail right the way through. They have seen what the tax is doing and will do in future. It is sad to say, but if Sinn Féin had openly supported the campaigns over the last year and a half outside the House rather than opposing the tax inside the House only, we might have been able to build a movement that would have rejected the tax outright and forced the Government to climb down.

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