Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)

There are times in public life when a policy, however well-intentioned, by design, strays away from its original purpose. To my mind, the local property tax is such a policy. It is not fair and not a sustainable way of supporting local services. By its very practice, it is detached from the principle of equality and economic reality of many citizens. Let us speak plainly in this House. This exists today in our system and is a burden for some of our older citizens, men and women who have spent their lives buying or building their homes, raising families, contributing through work and taxes. In these cases, many, who have previously paid property levies in some way, shape or form prior to 1978, are suffering. In the 1980s, there were service charges in many local authorities and city councils. People have always been paying into some sort of system. Many of these people are now in retirement, often living on their own and their incomes are sharply reduced. They have already paid taxes on their property and on the houses they built. Their heating bills or refuse charges have not halved but quite often their income has halved. There is an argument at this stage that anybody over the age of 65 to be exempt from property tax, in particular those that are dependent on a fixed income. Just because somebody bought something in the early 1980s or late 1970s for IR£3,000 or IR£4,000, which has increased in value - in places like Cork city houses that went for IR£4,000 in the early 1980s are now valued at €500,000 or €600,000 - their income is €230 or €270 a week, depending on what social welfare is available to them. It does not make sense to me. Many people are struggling in large homes. They cannot downsize. They want to stay in their communities where they have family, friends and support but they are paying huge amounts of money on property tax for something they have already paid property tax on at some stage.

Equally, there is a disparity in how property tax is collected. At present, local authorities retain 80% of the tax and the other 20% is pooled into a national equalisation fund to support councils whose LPT income does not meet the base line. In principle, that can be justified but the tinkering around over the past number of years by Department of housing, which conducted a review in 2024, leaves more questions than answers when it comes to local property tax.

I agree with my colleague, Deputy Michael Collins. I do not believe there is a properly funded local authority in the country. If the Government offered an extra €10 million or €20 million, the reality is a local authority would not refuse it. We are underfunding our local authorities continuously and that has to be addressed.

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