Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this Bill, which I support. Many people who bought houses are caught up in this situation, especially in larger towns and cities, and must pay property tax as well as these fees. Something must be done, as many of the people in question bought their houses at a time when prices were high.

The property tax is the most unfair tax. It would at least be something if people got a service out of it. Some people have their tongues out repaying their mortgages. Property tax is a tax on the family home and one's bed.

I would like Deputy Darragh O'Brien to take something into account. While I support his Bill and my sympathies are with people who have to pay these exorbitant fees as well as the property tax, someone applying for planning permission in a rural area pays the same contribution as someone within a town but does not get a sewerage service. If the person was in a larger town, he or she could connect to the sewerage system. The person in the rural area has no street lights or footpaths. I heard the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, speaking earlier this evening about lights, footpaths and the various services in different areas. Unfortunately, if a person is, as some call it, out in the sticks in rural Ireland - we call it the most beautiful part of the country - he or she must pay property tax and contribution levies. Apart from the Bill, the Government should consider this matter and stop crippling people living in rural Ireland.

Equally, people in cities are being shafted by having to pay twice in this way. One would have to sympathise with them. House prices are increasing for the simple reason that we do not have enough houses. A pensioner's father or mother might have bought or built a house years ago when some part of Dublin, Limerick or Galway was out the country before the city grew up around it. It is not the pensioner's fault that the house became more valuable. At the end of the day, all anyone can do is live in it if it is his or her home.

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