Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin is against a property tax, generally, and would dispose of it in favour of a wealth tax when in government. However, the fact that the Act is being amended at this time deserves some scrutiny. The local property tax was designed to pay off austerity-era banking debt and has no place in our society. It has never taken the ability to pay into account and it does not represent the type of taxation we should be considering and aiming for, which is to take money from those who will not suffer from its loss. We know from the Revenue Commissioners that 43,000 people defer payment every year. They still see interest of 3% applied to this debt. These are people who obviously cannot afford to pay. This is unacceptable. If the local property tax was a wealth tax, this would not be happening.

This ad hoc approach to governance is what has led this and many previous Governments to be extremely ineffective at delivering the social change which the people of this island are crying out for. Let us take the wool from our eyes, with which the Government has attempted to blind us, and reflect honestly on the fact that this Bill is being brought forward now only because there is a suitable distance between elections. It wants to avoid unfavourable voting. The Government has kicked this issue down the road three times because of impending elections and has chosen to introduce it now. It is seen by the people as strategic timing, if there ever was one, and self-interested.

Our citizens are struggling now more than ever. It has been announced that homeowners in Donegal and Mayo affected by the presence of defective blocks in their properties will be exempt from the tax for the next six years. Unfortunately, homeowners in Clare have not been afforded the same luxury. That is outrageous. The homeowners in Clare are not at all happy. Sinn Féin has tabled amendments to ensure that an engineer's report will not be necessary to qualify for the tax exemption. The cost incurred to get the approved certified I.S. 465 reports is so expensive that most people cannot afford it, especially families who are already suffering the injustice and ambiguity around what aid the State will give them to fix their shattered homes. This should be noted.

In my constituency, the Clare Pyrite Action Group is extremely frustrated and insulted that it will not benefit from this goodwill gesture. Honestly, in the great scheme of things, it is only a small, goodwill gesture. This olive branch is still not being extended to those homeowners despite the fact that the rigorous analysis which the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage demanded be conducted to show there were defective blocks was in only a core sample of five homes tested in February this year.

A further 34 homes in one estate alone are awaiting laboratory results. These figures may well be just the tip of the iceberg. We should not be saddling our people with more debt.

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