Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

During the years I had concerns about the way in which the money was distributed, but at least it offered certainty. Subsequently, however, the household charge was introduced, with promises that it would pay for grass cutting or libraries. It was mis-sold on the basis that it would cover a range of additional services to which people were not accustomed. The household charge was succeeded by the property tax as a replacement for the local government fund. When that fund was at its height in 2007, it amounted to almost €1 billion, but it has since been whittled down to almost nothing. People are not receiving additional services in paying the property tax. I do not understand why the Government is trying to con people. Why does it not simply acknowledge what is happening? People are offended when they are told something is other than what it is. If the Government replaces one tax with another, it should be honest enough to say so. We have all been through difficult times, but this dishonesty has undermined the credibility of politics.

People are paying the property tax to replace the local government fund, as well as motor tax, to pay for Irish Water. It is no surprise that they are up in arms when that kind of thing happens. There has been a fundamentally dishonest approach to this issue. At the last general election Fine Gael gave a commitment that it would not increase income tax. By taking water services off the books to fund them separately, it avoided touching income tax, but it still meant the introduction of a new tax. People on low incomes who would not be caught in the tax net are now paying taxes by a different name. These measures have nothing to do with conservation. The previous Government also proposed water charges, but its model would have included a free allowance for everyone and charges would only have applied where water was wasted.

The Government is claiming that the figure of €540 million, a significant sum, represents a contribution to the Exchequer, but the 2014 Act clearly states the local government fund is inextricably linked with Irish Water. Part of the reason the fund is needed by Irish Water is the resistance to charges from people who have been pushed too far. They do not have anything left to give.

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