Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

For the people of my constituency of Cork North-Central, another property tax hike just represents an increased bill they have to pay in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. In County Cork, according to a daft.ie report, house prices have increased by more than €75,000. That is not the fault of Cork City Council, Cork County Council, the people buying those houses or the tenants themselves. Rather, it is failed Government housing policy that has driven house prices to sky-high or record highs. The Government has not been able to get the supply right in housing. It has driven house prices up. The market is now running unchecked, charging whatever it wants.

There are people living in the family home who have no intention of selling. The value of their homes is that they are safe places to raise their families. It is their home. This Government is commoditising their home for money and not respecting what it is. In the eyes of the Government, the vulture funds and the big speculators and developers, housing is a commodity. We look at housing as being people's homes. That is the difference between the Government and Opposition sides of the House.

In County Cork, the local property tax is going to increase this year. People are paying this unfair tax but they cannot even get the local authorities to carry out work. This happens right across the State, not just in Cork. Footpaths need repairing and lighting needs to be upgraded and newly installed. Parks and playgrounds need work. We have no regional park on the north side of Cork city, none. Yet, people are paying the property tax.

To give an example, areas like Kerry Pike and Whitechurch have close to a 100% payment rate of the local property tax, but they cannot get investment in footpaths or lighting. Those people tell me they are working hard, have bought their own homes and have done everything right. When they turn to the local authority to look for money, however, it says it does not have the money because it is not getting enough funding from central government. There is an estate in Whitechurch called Castlewhite where the estate has not been taken charge of by the local authority. The residents are paying people to cut their grass and to maintain their green areas, even though the local authority should maintain it.

However, the local authority has not taken it into charge because it does not have the money to do it, so Cork County Council is doing a Pontius Pilot and washing its hands of the situation. Those residents are paying their local property tax and then double paying to have the work carried out. How can that be fair?

The Minister’s Government colleagues are blaming local authorities. The local authorities are the big bad wolf but the fact is - the Government never mentions it - that local authority funding was slashed after the financial crash of 2007 and 2008 and staffing levels and funding were never returned to where they should be. Government Members come in here and say local authorities should do this and that, but the local authorities have to produce balanced budgets every year, and if they do not have the income coming in from the local property tax, rates or housing rents, which are the only three forms of income for most local authorities, then they cannot provide the services that are required. Areas are crying out for parks and playgrounds that the local property tax should be paying for but it is not because local authorities do not have the funding to provide those. To make them the villain is wrong.

As Aengus said a minute ago, just because people have a house that has a value does not mean they have the ability to pay. There are areas I represent where people are living alone, they might be widows or widowers, and the value of the house might be one thing but they are living on the State pension, so any increase on them is another strike in the cost-of-living crisis.

I will conclude before my colleague contributes. I will give a terrible example. Tower is an area in my constituency where there is a bridge, called Tower Bridge, which has no pedestrian crossing and only one car can get across at a time. For years, people have been crying out for a pedestrian crossing, perhaps one hanging off the side of the bridge. Hundreds of thousands of euro have been collected in development charges but there is still no bridge so that children can get to and from school. They have one of the highest levels of local property tax in the State, yet the people of Tower cannot get footpaths, pedestrian crossings or the bridge that is needed.

We should be looking at properly funding local authorities but the Government has devastated those over the years.

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