Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)

I am the chairperson of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, and I am delighted to be Independent Ireland's first chairperson. An invitation to the Minister to attend our meeting next Tuesday was sent by the clerk to the committee. We had facilitated the Minister, in that he could not make it two weeks ago. We changed people around and other people appeared before us. However, we got a note back saying the Minister's officials were not available on that date. I do not accept that. With all due respect to the officials, it is the Minister I want. If they are missing, that is fine. I want the Minister, Deputy Chambers, and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, to attend our committee. It is a very important committee. We are talking about budgets and oversight. I hope the Minister will be in attendance, with or without his officials.

To return to the business at hand, the local property tax is a fund for the local authorities. I do not want to see the local authorities without the funding to carry out different infrastructure works within our areas. However, if the local property tax had to go tomorrow morning, there are still funds to replace it with what the Government has been taking from people building their own houses. The waiver for the planning contribution fee has been removed and it has been reintroduced. A person building a 2,000 sq. ft house has to pay between €5,500 and €6,000 to build their own house, on top of a local property tax. Four years ago, the charge was €120 per sq. ft. The Government at the time, on VAT alone, was making €34,500 from a person building his or her own house. Today, the same house, with the same square footage, costs about €200 per sq. ft and the Government takes €54,000. In four years, the tax take from somebody building their own house has increased by €21,600 based on a 2,000 sq. ft house. On top of that, people have now to pay the planning permission fees of €5,000 or €6,000 and a local property tax. The Government has increased the tax by €21,600 on top of the planning contribution fee. The increase has gone to almost €35,000 at a time when people are fighting inflation. A house that was costing €240,000 now costs €400,000. That is an increase of €160,000 that must be paid for the same house. Out of that, the Government has taken an increase in the tax take.

How much can people manage? Their mortgages are now gone to 30 years or 40 years in order to try to put a roof over their heads. We are talking about inflation. The local property tax could be done away with. The councils could be supplemented by the extra tax being taken at source. If a person is living in a town or village that has been without infrastructure for years, because with active travel the money is put back into the cities and not into the counties, there is not a level playing field. Send the money back out to the counties and look after the people with the extra taxes they are paying.

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