Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Government introduced a property tax without any provision for an ability to pay clause for the more than 90,000 people in mortgage arrears of more than 90 days, pensioners and the unemployed, who do not have the capacity to pay. Notwithstanding the legislation, the Government then decided to retain 80% of the revenue that was meant to go to local authorities to pay for the establishment of Irish Water over the last 12 months. Provision was made in the legislation to reduce or increase the property tax by 15% at local level. This is despite the fact that at the beginning of this year the property tax was doubled. It was an extraordinarily cynical move to double the tax and then have the Tánaiste commit the Labour Party to reducing it by 15% in 2015. We have now learned there is a significant split in the Cabinet on this issue. Government sources have stated that Fine Gael wants to charge local authorities more and when they get revenue from the property tax in 2015 they will be required to use it to pay for services and other public expenditure that central government will refuse to fund. In other words, people in urban areas who are paying higher rates of property tax will have to pay more for services that are devolved from central government. The source stated that Fine Gael, "are using the excuse of the property tax to reduce other grants. Their whole point is if the councils have it, the money should go back to the central exchequer, not the householder ... This is a sleight of hand to cut funding by the back door". Clearly that source must be a Labour Party Minister or member. This was confirmed on "Morning Ireland" this morning by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

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