Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I assign that party the blame it is due. The family home tax is simply a tax too far. Yet people will also face bills for water next year, those charges being introduced, rather conveniently, after the local elections are out of the way. Is there no threshold below which the Government is not prepared to stoop in order to ensure the rich in our society do not have to pay?

The Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Brian Hayes, spoke in his contribution about taxation. He did not even have the relevant figures. I have them in my hand, direct from the Minister's senior officials in response to a parliamentary question. The figures show that people earning between €100,000 and €125,000 paid income tax of 21%. This information is on the public record, yet the Minister of State is not even aware of it. That is disgraceful. He does not have the information but he sees fit to make a false accusation before running out of the Chamber.

I understand that Michael O'Leary of Ryanair, who lives in a huge mansion in Westmeath which is reportedly valued at millions of euro, allegedly falls into category three of the property tax, which means a payment of €157 this year. That is amazing. The tax makes no distinction between rich and poor. Whether at the behest of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or the Labour Party, it is an imposition that punishes the poor and those on low incomes. It is they who are feeling the pain, not Michael O'Leary and others like him.

There are far more equitable ways of raising the money that will be taken through the property tax. We accept that moneys must be raised for the State so that services can be funded.

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