Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

This is where there is a difference of opinion. The Minister has eloquently outlined why we are not going to tax one group but, rather, will tax another group instead. In fairness, the local property tax will affect everybody. Everybody will pay more in tax this year, but the guy who has a pension pot of €2.5 million can afford the extra bit in local property tax. That is the difference. Take the example of the person who lives over the road from me, cares for their loved one, gets carer’s allowance and works the extra 19 hours when they are able to earn by putting food on the table for workers and people in the community. When we add it all together, that person comes home with something like €24,000 per year and has to try to raise a family with it. These are the people whose local property tax is going to double. This is about fairness. Who do we put the burden on? Taxation is about where we place the burden. Do we place a burden on people who, in the Minister’s words, play a valuable role in society through the jobs they do? The woman who cooks the breakfast plays a valuable role. A trainee nurse in third or fourth year who only gets a few pounds plays a valuable role. The cleaner who goes into my local school plays a crucial role. The SNA who helps my wee nephew plays an unbelievable role. None of them are on €140,000-plus but under this legislation the burden will fall on them at the same level as it will fall on people with very high incomes. The Minister asked me where this money would come from as if we would have to find it and it would be impossible to find. That is not the case. There are countless other examples.

A good idea would be to ask the vulture funds, which charge crazy rents and which the Minister facilitated over and over again through finance Bills, to pay tax on their rental income. They do not pay tax on their rental income. People out there who do some of the jobs I mentioned earlier are handing over €2,000 or €3,000 to these funds but the funds, because of their structure, do not have to pay any tax on rental income within the fund. They pay tax only when they pay off dividends, and we know all about how that can be reduced.

There are numerous ways to gather that revenue; that is not the issue. The issue is the Government is wedded to this idea and that is its ideology, that is the choice people have, and I completely oppose it. I will push this to a vote and I ask the Chair to facilitate it. I know the Government will decide to vote against it and that is its prerogative but, in my view, this is a tax that should be phased out. At the very least, at a time when we have an €8.4 billion surplus this year and a surplus of €6.3 billion expected next year,let us not ask people to pay more. That is within our power. I have tabled another amendment that would be a compromise and would ensure nobody pays more. Nobody would have to go up a band and nobody would have to pay more in local property tax. That is the fair thing. This tax should be ended.

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