Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

It is incredible to see the Government railroading legislation of this importance through the Dáil just before the summer recess, especially during a week when most of the country's attention is on the vaccine discrimination Bill. The LPT has the potential to increase the property tax for rural dwellers and those around the country who have been hit by the mica problem. There are a number of serious problems with this legislation. The use of the guillotine is deleting the Dáil's democratic oversight.

It is wrong and it is happening over and over again. Since its introduction in 2013, the local property tax, LPT, has been an unjust taxation measure. Many property owners are struggling to pay bills, have had their incomes cut, been hammered with decades long mortgages or hit with this blanket measure. It fails to take into account any of those personal circumstances people are in. Those who have been hit with economic hardship are less likely to be able to deal with this tax. I have opposed this LPT for years and I am unconvinced this Bill will alleviate the inequity that arises from it.

I put several questions to the Minister at the finance committee and I was surprised he was not in a position to answer them. He said he would forward a note to me on those questions. I have not received a note before this debate. It is disappointing because the issues I raised were important.

The first one was on the redefinition of a residential property. On that, I raised the fact many people in rural Ireland are concerned that suddenly sheds, outhouses and other buildings on their property are to be taken into the cost of the valuation of the local property tax. We did not get clarity on it then. I was asked to trust the Government on it, but if you look at the legislation now, it says a shed, outhouse, garage or another building shall be considered, for the purposes of this Act, to form part of the residential property. That means this redefinition could drive up the cost of property taxes to residential property owners in rural Ireland. People in rural Ireland are far more likely to have these types of buildings and, therefore, are likely to be hit.

Has the Minister done any estimate? Can he tell us how many people are likely to be hit under this new definition. Does he have any estimate of what the cost to families in rural Ireland will be as a result of this extra definition?

The Bill also changes the word "acre" to "hectare". This is no small thing. It more than doubles the footprint of valuation. This will also hit farmers and rural dwellers. How many people will be hit by this, in the Minister's estimation? What costs will they have to pay? It looks to many people that a Dublin Minister for Finance is trying to increase a sneaky tax on people in rural Ireland. That is wrong. People should know what will happen as a result of this Bill.

I also asked the Minister about the loophole in the Bill around the mica homeowners. We were told, under questioning, this Bill includes a six-year LPT exemption for mica property owners. However, the Taoiseach stood up in this Chamber not too long ago and said it would take €1 billion and ten years to deal with this crisis. There is a four-year gap in this legislation given the Taoiseach's estimation of how long it will take to deal with homes with mica. For a Minister for Finance to be so blind to that need, just one month after mica homeowners made that trek all the way from counties Donegal and Mayo to Dublin, is wrong. There should be no time limit placed on mica property owners. The exemption should remain in place for each home until each home is fixed, which logical. Under this legislation, we have a situation in which mica homeowners whose homes are not fixed in six years' time will be liable for LPT on their crumbling houses, which is absolutely wrong.

I also raise the issue of empty houses. One in 33 houses in this State is empty. More than 200,000 houses are empty and that does not include 60,000-odd houses considered to be holiday homes. In the heart of a housing crisis, in which dozens of people are dying in homelessness in this country and well over 1 million people are in crisis, whether it be in homelessness, on waiting lists or paying spiralling rents and house prices, it is shocking the Minister does not include the cost of vacancy or some level of tax to encourage or mobilise empty houses into family homes.

When I asked the Minister at the finance committee what the story was, he said some research needs to be done to understand the context of these empty homes. That is like someone saying some research needs to be done on a building that is on fire before we quench the fire. The housing market is on fire. There is a crisis of massive humanitarian proportions in this State and the Minister's response to hundreds of thousands of empty buildings is that we should look into this. That is an incredible thing to do. There is no urgency there.

Before I finish, the Minister needs to look into the way local authorities are funded in this State, which is wrong. There is massive inequality with regard to population distribution and local authority funding. It needs to be fixed. It has a material effect on how people live, in all aspects of their homes. In my county, we have the lowest investment per capitain the State with regard to local authority investment. That radically reduces people's access to services they need.

See this speech in context