Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Will staff have to be directed to do that? Every Deputy in this House understands the pain and anguish suffered by people waiting for verification that they have been granted these allowances from representations we get. Will people have to be diverted through paying the €100 grant to bribe people to register for water charges?

My last point concerns the local property tax and the local government fund. I am not an accountant or an economist but I have a basic knowledge of finance. I am still not clear whether the property tax is being used to fund Irish Water. We know motor tax is being used. It is not the case that 100% of property tax goes to local authorities. Some of it goes into a central fund. It appears that money from that central fund is being used to fund Irish Water. If that is the case, it is a deception perpetrated by this Government which pushed the property tax as a way of funding local authorities. The Minister of State needs to clarify this.

The other issue is the way councils have been put in a bind. We have all seen at annual budget meetings, because of the funding mechanism which the Government has changed, with some given to Irish water, the way councillors are put in a position where they are trying to decrease the property tax but by doing so they are cutting the amount of money they have for their own councils. The way this Government has handled the funding of local authorities and Irish Water has to be defended. Councillors are being told that they will make people homeless if they do not vote for increased property taxes. Next we will hear that there is no money for Irish Water if people do not increase the property tax. All of this has to be defended and explained by the Minister of State and he has not made any attempt to do so. We still do not have a transcript of his speech last night that we asked for, which I do not think is unreasonable. By the looks of it, there are only about four of us here who give a damn so he could have got four copies printed and handed to us so we could at least scrutinise what he said. I would appreciate if that was done. Perhaps we could take a break in the same way we had to take a break yesterday.

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