Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

I believe we all have the same perspective on this Bill, although our interpretation of it might be different from the Minister's. Senator Coffey's amendment deals with parents and any house, not just a granny flat. Over 400,000 houses will be subject to this levy. A number of people will be in the situation of having a granny flat or where the son or daughter owns the house where the parents are living. It is not a huge number; it will not be in the tens of thousands. If this legislation passes and local authorities charge €200 on a granny flat or a family home in the possession of a son or daughter where the parents who might be in their 80s or 90s are residing, it will cause uproar in local areas.

There should be a simple amendment to the legislation. I have dealt with the granny flat issue in amendment No. 6b. I cannot see in the legislation where a granny flat, which is a self-contained flat adjoining the house, would be exempt from the levy. I agree with Senator Paddy Burke. These amendments might not be the best, given that all of this was rushed, but time should be allocated to examine some of the issues that have been raised. A number of exemptions are necessary. They will not change the spirit of the Bill but will clarify what everybody wants to achieve. They will also deal with the outrage that will occur in rural areas, particularly if county managers, under the letter of the law, start to impose these levies on houses to which it is neither my nor the Minister's intention that they should be applied.