Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This Bill is apparently technical in nature. I got a call last week asking if I would have a problem with this Bill going through the Dáil without debate. I said I did have a problem with it going through without debate because it deals with two issues that are of considerable importance to the people of this country. One of these issues is the local property tax, a tax which, frankly, is despised by huge numbers of people, which I resolutely oppose, and which is causing very great hardship for huge numbers of our citizens.

Although this particular measure just talks about extending the deferral period for people, we need to point out that, in most cases, these people have to defer it because they do not have enough money to pay it. I was just checking the Revenue statistics for this. In discussing the local property tax we need to point out that 96% of the deferrals being sought in respect of the property tax, and for which there is now going be an extension, are sought by people because their incomes are so low that they cannot afford to pay it. This was our point about the property tax when we marched, when we opposed it and when we encouraged a boycott which the Government cleverly got around by handing the tax over to Revenue. The Minister of State should not think for one minute that bringing in the heavy hand of Revenue to collect it from people forcefully makes it okay.

It is certainly not okay for people who are clocking up a debt in respect of this property tax, a debt arising from the fact that they do not have enough money to pay it. What is fair about that? That debt is clocking up and it is now going to clock up an extra year. Those who cannot pay it are probably glad that they can defer it for an extra year but the debt is clocking up. These deferrals are for people whose income is less than €15,000. How does anybody survive on €15,000, never mind pay a property tax?

It is worth taking the opportunity to say this tax was justified at the time it was introduced on the basis that it would be a sustainable source of income and that it would be a progressive tax. The proposers said that it was a tax on wealth. It is not. It is a tax on the least well off who are then forced to defer it because they cannot pay. To that can be added the fact that 85,000 have it taken forcefully out of their wages by their employers at the behest of Revenue. Why? The Minister of State can be certain that it is because they are low-income workers who cannot afford it.

Is Deputy Mick Barry speaking on this? Am I sharing time?

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