John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to address the Jekyll and Hyde approach I have seen here this morning. Let me start by saying to the Minister of State - Paudie Coffey, T.D. from Waterford - that he was great once he put down the script. It came from the heart, he knew what he was speaking about and he moved away from the bull in his original opening statement and for that I commend him. I have not heard Deputy O'Donovan speak in the House although I know he is a regular contributor. I admire him for what he said today because he is a backbencher from Fine Gael and is expected to toe the line. However, he has given this morning his personal view and acknowledged the reality of what is happening outside the gates of this House and I admire him for that. He is a young person in politics and I hope he keeps up that contribution because it is only by changing from within his party that he will bring about the changes that are necessary in the legislation that comes from that side of the House. I thank him for his contribution. He is the only Government Member who has spoken today. I thank my colleagues in opposition - Deputies Michael Fitzmaurice, Mattie McGrath, Sean Fleming, Brian Stanley, Charlie McConalogue - as well as Deputy O'Donovan and the Minister of State.

I want to go back to the Minister of State's speech because he did not write it. That speech was handed to him as he came in the door because whoever wrote it has no idea of what is going on outside. If the Minister of State showed the transcript of the last piece he spoke in this House to his brother, he would say "that's grand Paudie." However, if the Minister of State showed him that rubbish, he would tell him where to put it. That is the problem here. The Minister of State, his brother and Deputy O'Donovan know the big issues that are happening outside this House. The Minister of State knows that what he has just repeated and parroted from the Civil Service is absolute nonsense. If the Minister of State, or Deputy Coffey - whichever one we are speaking to now - believes in it, he should take out an advertisement in his local paper. If he does not want to pay for the full publication of this rubbish which is his opening statement, he should just pay for the following comments where he states that he is very familiar with and generally accepting of the operation and practice of the rating system. Does he think this would go down well in Waterford? I do not think so. He might then go and say that under the approach I have adopted in parts of the Bill, the approach to providing joint liability is unworkable. I do not think that would go down very well. If he goes on to say that 5% of their overall costs is the cost of rates to most businesses, I do not think businesses would agree with that. If he talks in the advertisement about taxing sporting clubs through the rates, I do not think they would be too happy with him. In his speech, he says that the rates burden is not excessive in the overall sense. Would he stand beside his local publican or shopkeeper and tell them that their rates are not that excessive? I do not think he would get much of a vote down there.

I will allow the Minister of State one minute at the end of my time to stand up in this House and say that politically he is accepting this Bill on the basis that it can be amended on Committee Stage or that individuals like Deputy O'Donovan can bring forward amendments and so on. I do not believe that my Bill has all the answers or is correct in every aspect. They are just my views. I was honestly hoping that the Minister of State would come in here today and accept the Bill because it can be amended later on.

We now live in a country that is at war with citizens. I started by saying that. The first duty of Government is to keep its people safe. I keep saying this in here but what has the Government done? I will tell the House what it has done. It has created a system whereby any local business can now have visits from the likes of the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Health. If a person runs a delicatessen down the road, they can have visits from six other different Departments. One could go on and say that they could have visits from HIQA and NERA. One then finds the Revenue Commissioners threatening individual citizens with the collection of all sorts of taxes. The Government has given those who administer this country the ability to put their hands into the pockets of ordinary people and steal from them. The Government had almost criminalised everybody in the country who is in business or who owes money to the extent that they must prove they are innocent. Everyone is looked upon as being guilty. If one looks at the entrepreneurs and the people who are trying to keep businesses open and sustain jobs, one can see that the Government is treating them like criminals and making it impossible for them to run their businesses from an administration perspective.

In respect of the rates system, the Minister of State says that the some of the measures in my Bill is unworkable. I do not like the language in the stuff dished out by the Minister of State when he came in here first, which said that my Bill would interfere with the running of the courts. I would not say they were Deputy Coffey's words. Yes, they were the Minister of State's words and the words of civil servants.

That is utter nonsense. The Bill would make the system more streamlined and efficient. It addresses issues recently raised by county managers. Yet the Minister of State described it as "interfering". Such language runs through everything we do. Earlier, I pointed out that the Valuation Office told us it would never get around the country to revalue properties. It cannot do it. The Minister of State is creating an inequitable situation in the marketplace whereby one set of crèches will pay while another set will not.

The Minister of State is in dispute with local authorities and sporting clubs. Sporting clubs are the only organisations, respected in their communities, that are delivering family-oriented services that introduce discipline and give young people something to do other than things that are not good for society. Nevertheless, the Government is going to start taxing them through the rates system. There is no sense in it.

To return to the word “unworkable”, I presume the two Deputies present have constituency offices. They do not pay rates on their constituency offices. While it was fine to exempt us from paying rates on our constituency offices, the Government can do nothing to assist the SME sector, which creates 800,000 jobs. While the Government may not be able to do much through the rates system, because it does not want to affect the €1.4 billion it generates, it expects the local business people to ignore everything and pay up. The same business people pay €3 per cubic metre for water in and water out. In their day, rates were to include water in and water out, refuse collection and everything else. Although people pay them, they now also pay for their bins and water. When the young entrepreneur or the owner of an established family high street outlet goes home, he or she will also pay for water there. It is convenient for the Government to exempt Irish Water from rates.

I offer the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, the opportunity to acknowledge his brother and all the other people in business, and the knowledge that he personally knows to be true, by standing up and saying, "Deputy McGuinness, your Bill will go through to Committee Stage, and we will have a fuller discussion on it." Come on, Paudie. Up you get. We have time.

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