Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Then let us talk about it. The motor tax of approximately €1 billion, the local property tax of approximately €500 million and the money from the plastic bag levy were ring-fenced for the local government fund each year. As a result, saying that money has not been ring-fenced since the abolition of domestic rates in 1977 can only be explained by someone getting carried away when writing the Minister of State's script. These items used to be ring-fenced for local government until the Government established Irish Water. It then decided to take one third of the money out of the fund for Irish Water, its pet project. We had a ring-fenced fund but the Government has raided it in the past couple of years to hand money over to Irish Water.

The most depressing thing I heard from the Government side today is that, despite the fact that this was introduced in the Dáil over four months ago on 18 June, the Department of Finance has said it has not been possible to cost it. I would hope that if we were in government again, we would have a Department of Finance which would be able to cost such a proposal.

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