Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending and the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue.

By definition, tenants are not the owners of a property. They may have rights in a property, but these are limited and only for the period of their tenancy and with the agreement of their landlord. They are far less powerful in this regard than those who own their homes, ignoring the fact that many Irish people only own their unaffordable mortgage and are struggling to hold on to their homes by any means they can.

The property tax was and remains the wrong tax at the wrong time. In its normal application it fails to recognise the ability of a homeowner to pay and ignores such issues as negative equity and distressed mortgages, issues which are still rife in the Ireland of 2015. The property boom and crash forced more people than ever before into renting. Now nearly one quarter of all Irish people live in rented accommodation. The private market has always been unwilling to provide housing as needed and is only willing to do so when a clear and easy profit is possible. The State, therefore, has a central role in ensuring sufficient, affordable, comfortable and secure housing is available. Unfortunately, it has ignored this role for decades. As a result, the problem of housing need on the bottom rung has grown worse and those living in social housing are ghettoised in excluded communities in which unemployment, poverty and educational disadvantage are commonplace. These tenants have suffered most at the hands of two austerity Governments. They have seen all manner of cuts to social protections, vital supports and services, while their children have been left in overcrowded classrooms, with fewer SNAs and other staff to deal with the myriad of educational problems poverty brings. These tenants now face the possibility, as is already the case in Limerick, of having to pay the property tax. The tax the Labour Party claimed was a wealth tax is now a tax on social housing which will be paid for by the very one who have least to give.

Last month Limerick City and County Council decided to add a charge of approximately €87 to the rents of its tenants in order to recoup the cost of the local property tax it must pay on its social housing stock. This practice, although common in the private market, strictly, is illegal. It is wrong of the council to do this, but it must pay its bill, which is the real problem. The taxing of social housing by the Government, through the local property tax, is the real problem. This is a decision made by the Government which cannot hide behind the council which is trying balance its books - its legacy after years of austerity - and now facing a tax on its housing stock. Given the Government's recent pronouncements on housing provision, a tax on social housing seems to be counter-productive.

I am doubtful about the Government's housing strategy claims, but if it delivers such numbers of houses, how will councils and voluntary bodies afford to pay the property tax bill? I call on the Minister to do two things. First, he must end the practice of charging property tax on social housing and, second, if he is unwilling to do so, he should issue a diktat to councils that under no circumstances should they pass on property tax to their tenants. Shared ownership is another area in which it is unfair for councils to pass on the property tax which will impact on tenants in a myriad areas.

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